With the recent comments made by Morgan Freeman, it is very important that organizers, organizations, educators and supporters of the Black Liberation struggle, not only use African Heritage Month to reach our people, but every chance available. Black People must continuously counter, the Counter Intelligence Program!

Morgan Freeman is correct: our heritage should not be regulated to one month and it isn’t. Black people were not “given” the shortest month of the year to celebrate their legacy. Dr. Carter G. Woodson chose a time for Black people to honour, acknowledge, learn and be proud of their beautiful legacy and culture.

Celebrating African

Back then it was called Negro History Week, which later became Black History Month and is now commonly referred to as African Heritage Month. There are also many other months and days in which Black people have to celebrate their African culture.

May is African Liberation Month . On May 2nd was the kidnapping and capture of Assata Shakur, Sundiata Acoli & assassination of Zayd Shakur. During this month there is the birthday (May 19th) of the shinning Black Prince, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X). On May 25 th 1963 the O.A.U., Organization for African Unity (now known as the African Union) was formed. This day is honored and commemorated every year as African Liberation Day on the last Saturday of the month of May.

August is acknowledged as Black August. During this month the legacy of resistance to white supremacy and slavery is honoured. On August 2, 1850 the Underground Railroad was started. August 8th , 1978 the House of the organization MOVE was bombed by the city of Philadelphia.

On August 17th the birthday of the Honourable Marcus Garvey is celebrated. The “Nat Turner Rebellion” began on August 21 st 1831. August 30th, 1800 marks the anniversary of the rebellion lead by Gabriel Prosser.

Kwanzaa Bonanza!

There is also the week of Kwanzaa, December 26th – January 1st . At this time, African people world wide practice, celebrate and incorporate the Nguzo Saba (seven principles) into their daily lives. Those principles are: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work & responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) & Imani (faith).

In addition to the above mentioned days and months, there is also Martin Luther King Day which is January 15th, Juneteenth which is celebrated on June 19th and many more which neither time nor space will allow. These days are all days set aside by Black People for Black People, just as African Heritage Month was.

Black Peoples’ holy days do not have to be acknowledged or supported by mainstream America in order for them to have significance. This is why a “Black History Month” had to be created in the first place. White America did not (and still does not) want to recognize the contributions of African People.

Celebrate Black Heritage

White America celebrates its history and culture throughout the entire year; this is why there is no “white history month”. St. Patrick’s Day, Valentines Day, Columbus Day and Presidents’ Day are all aspects of European culture.

Mainstream America cannot define for African People when or how we will celebrate our heritage. African People have a great and mighty legacy that is honoured and celebrated throughout the year.

These moments must be used to mobilize and organize Black People toward self-determination, self-respect, self-defense and full and complete reparations. One cannot expect white America to recognize, support or endorse our culture. As the great poet Gil Scott Heron stated, “The revolution will not be televised.”

Hip Hop is proud to introduce another first to its list of innovations! This stime a book, heralded as the world’s first and only trivia book devoted to hip hop culture, has just stepped into the ring.

Called “Peep This!: Hip Hop Trivia Volume 1″ will entertain, inform and challenge every hip hop fan from the old to the new.

This book features over 400 questions on the artists you know and love. You can test yourself or your friends on anything from your favorite artists to your favorite songs.

Finally there is a book that teaches the history of hip hop in a fun and creative way. If you want to learn more about hip hop or want to see how much you already know, then this book is for you.

Peep This! Hip Hop Trivia Volume I, will help teach young hip hop fans about the early days of hip hop and also test them on hip hop artistS of today. This book will have old-school hip hop fans reminiscing about artists and songs they loved back in the day. Whatever level your knowledge is on the hip hop culture, you will enjoy this book.

How did you learn your rites of passage?
According to Baba Koleoso Karade, aka Nashid Fakhrid-Deen, JD, Rites-of-Passage programs are a method of healing the Black male. In his new book, Reaching Black Males Through Spirituality he states “Today we search for ways to reach Black males in reference to their education, career, social, and moral duties. Our African and Native American ancestors had the answer in their cultural educational systems.”

This monumental work is the result of Karade’s 25 years of experience working with African-American youth in higher education, as well as his personal spiritual journey.

Karade was raised in the Baptist church, but also became an active minister in the Nation of Islam, an Imam of traditional Islam, studied with a Hindu Yogi, and in 1998 was initiated as a priest in the traditional African religion of Ifa.

He blended his educational experience with aspects of African, Native American and Indian culture to create a specific Rites-of-Passage program, which speaks to the needs of black males. Koleoso has created a 9-month, three-phase program that flows with the earth’s natural cycles, beginning at the Spring Equinox (March 21) and ending in the winter at the beginning of Kwanzaa.

The curriculum is holistic, and includes subjects ranging from African & African-American history, sex education, social values, personal finance, and art. Educators, youth counselors, teachers and families can implement the entire program or incorporate aspects of it into their own practices.

The program’s goal is to develop healthy, culturally aware, responsible, BALANCED males. Through Rites-of-Passage programs such as these, young Black males are initiated into manhood becoming the MEN so desperately needed in the community.

Along with the Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba) and the seven days of Kwanzaa, there are seven symbols or implements that are used in the celebration of the holiday…

These seven items are arraigned in an area set up as a Kwanzaa altar or table in the home.

The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are:

Mkeka (m-KAY-kah): The Mat

A mat woven of fabric, raffia, or even paper. The Mkeka is important because the other holiday implements rest upon it.

Symbolizes the experiences, culture, achievements and sacrifices of our ancestors upon which our lives are built.

Kikombe cha Umoja (kee-KOHM-bay cha oo-MOH-jah): The Unity Cup

Representing family and community unity. When the Unity cup filled with water, juice, or wine, a little bit is poured out as reminder and respect for our ancestors. The cup is then passed around and shared with those gathered, with each person taking a sip.

Mazao (mah-ZAH-oh): The Crops

The fruits and vegetables that are the result of the harvest. Bananas, mangoes, peaches, plantains, oranges, or whatever might be the family favourites. The Mazao are placed on the Mkeka and are shared and eaten to honor the work of the people it took to grow them.

Kinara (kee-NAH-rah): The Candleholder

Representing our African ancestors, the Kinara holds the seven candles that symbolize the Nguzo Saba. The Kinara is placed on the Mkeka and holds the Mishumaa Saba (the seven candles).

Mishumaa Saba (mee-shoo-MAH SAH-ba): The Seven Candles

Seven candles, representing the seven principles of Nguzo Saba, which are placed in the Kwanzaa Kinara. The colours of the candles are red, green, and black which are the colors of the Bendera (or African Flag).

Muhindi (moo-HEEN-dee): The Corn

Represents the children (and future) of the family. One suke (ear) of corn is placed on the Mkeka for each child in the family. If there are no children in the family one suke is still placed on the Mkeka to symbolize the children of the community.

The Muhindi also represents the Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of the land. Without whom there would be no corn, also known as Maize. It is used as acknowledgment and respect of their contribution to the culture and ancestors of the African American.

Note: A single ear of corn can also be know as Vibunzi. Indian Corn is sometimes used.

Zawadi (zah-WAH-dee): Gifts

Kwanzaa gifts given to children that will make them better people. The gifts should always include a book, video, or other educational item that will educate and inform the child. There should also be a gift know as a “heritage symbol”. Something to remind the child of glory of the past and the promise of the future.

Go on list your top ten reasons why you love being Black!

People of all races love many things about being Black, and they take those things, trying to make them their own, while too many of us look at ourselves with disdain. I believe that Black people need to change our minds about us and begin to embrace the things that are uniquely Black. We have to love those things, while loving ourselves.

Black people in America are a special and wonderful blend of horrible oppression, faith, hope, creativity, spirituality and unresolved issues. No matter how bad things are, we still have what it takes to make it better.

Haven�t we always? Yes, and I love that about us. For all the problems, the ups and downs of being part of the most challenged race on the planet, there is nothing more beautiful than walking, talking and dancing in the sun as Black people. We are the party and everyone wants to attend. It�s time for us to celebrate.

In another Black Top Ten List, I�d like to celebrate the things that are to be loved about being Black.

Top Ten Things To Love About Being Black:-

1] Melanin. The sun loves us. Melanin protects us from the harmful UV rays and when we absorb them, we are in tune and in time with the earth�s rotation and the rhythm of the universe.
Plus, God gave us our own rainbow in the shades of Africans, from light-bright and damn-near white to Blue-Black and every shade in between. God is an artist and we are the canvas.

2] Rhythm, baby. Show me a person who says: �Blacks have natural rhythm� as a putdown and I will show you someone who is jealous because they can�t find the beat. Dance like no one is watching�

3] Resilience, brothers and sisters. There is no other group of people who has the ugly history carried by Black people in America, and yet, we still exist and find a way to party as well as carry on through ugly conditions, making it look beautiful. Maya Angelou said it best: �And still I rise��

4] The Black female physique. Females of other races go through hell and high water, surgery and the risk of cancer in the sun just to imitate what God gave my sisters naturally–lips and hips, skin and hair, rhythm in the talk and walk and sex appeal as deep as Atlantis. Yes, I�m a girl watcher. Here comes one now�

5] The Black man�s walk. It took years of watching my older brothers and cousins before I could walk the walk of a man that still has all eyes on me when I walk into a room. Eventually, it just came to me naturally. There�s a rhythmic swagger of confidence that belongs to my brothers and I and no matter how hard you work to imitate it, you can�t walk it like we can.

6] Black hair. Dreads, braids and fades are just different and artistic on natural Black hair, and even when the sisters lay their hair down with heat or chemicals, it�s still a beautiful and different thing, because no one can rock relaxed hair like Black women. And no one can rock a bald head like a Black man. Am I rockin� it, baby?

7] Resourcefulness. We took the waste products that were tossed to us and made them taste like the food of the Gods. Chitterlings are now a delicacy in France and you can�t keep white folks out of Soul Food restaurants where grits and greens are done just right. And, many of us have stories of a Black mother who stretched nothing out to make it seem like something that a house full of kids could enjoy and have fond memories about for years.

8] Black mothers. Stretching food is nothing compared to the feat of stretching love and making Christmas or a birthday special without one store-bought gift. The original mother of the universe stretched her arms and provided love and comfort for an entire race, even when we don�t feel deserving of love. Why do you think Black kids are the most protective of their mothers?

9] Black dances. Okay, I will brag about the stepping that has emerged from my hometown of Chicago to become a national craze, but not without also bragging about dances from tap to the Boogaloo and Funky chicken to the w** and the Pop Yo� Collar. Dance mechanically by the numbers if you want to, but Britney Spears is still regurgitating old half-warmed Janet Jackson moves from the 1980�s and it ain�t half as fly.

10] Black creativity. Take away school music programs and give us old record collections from previous generations and only Black people could create an entirely new musical style based on our natural rhythms and rhymes. Popular rap music may be mostly ignorant in it�s content, but the beats are still bangin� and the underground is developing new lyrical styles and content. Who�s fresh? African descendants in America, G! Don�t front, you know we got you open.

Now, there are at least ten reasons to celebrate being you. Add to the list on your own. Keep them near and dear to your heart whenever anyone tries to say we are anything but a beautiful people. We may not wear the t-shirts anymore, but I still love being Black!

Darryl James is a syndicated columnist and the author of �Bridging The Black Gender Gap,� which is also the basis of his lectures. James was awarded the 2004 Non-fiction Award for his book on the Los Angeles Riots at the Seventh Annual Black History Month Book Fair and Conference in Chicago. He can be reached at djames@TheBlackGenderGap.com

The Judas Factor, has been written based on fifteen years of research, including hundreds of interviews and the examination of 300,000 pages declassified FBI and CIA documents.

On February 21, 1965, Malcom Little, revolutionary known as Malcom X, was shot and killed in the beginning of a meeting. Still today his murder is a very complicated riddle; although he gave to his wife and a close friend a list with the name of five black muslims he thought to be the ones who might kill him, that list was never made public.

Apparently, there are three possible theories behind his murder, which are:

- The Black Muslims

The Hon. Elijah Muhammad was very disappointed with him for various estrange reasons. He suspended Malcom X for 90 days because he had made negative comments about Kennedy’s murder in a meeting, where according to Elijah Muhammad, only muslim matters should have been addressed that day. Although, apparently, every member inside the mosques was celebrating Kennedy’s death.

Anoher possible motive was the spreading rumours about Elijah’s extramarital relationships with his young secretaries with whom he fathered more than ten children.

- The Intelligence Community

What anybody knew, black moderate leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, the same Malcom X, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and many others; was that the FBI with J. Edgar Hoover ahead, and the CIA were following every single move that they made, any conversation by phone was recorded, they infiltrate every organisation with secret agents and agents provocateur. As they feared a possible alliance between African American radicals and moderates.

- The Mafia

Just days after Malcom’s murder, it was thought that the Mafia could had had something to do with his murder as their drugs profits in the black community had fallen dramatically.

An incredible catchy book that for sure we will keep you on the edge of the chair while reading it, as it happened to me. The sequence of the plot is very strong from the beginning to the end as it shows the plots behind of the killings of other leaders, not only Afroamericans, but Africans, Asians and South Americans.

Run out and get your copy!

This is an Exhibition that shatters all perception of Africa. Directly opposed to the way in which the media would have us believe, here we see Africa at its best. Housing 88 African artists from 25 different countries this is a show not to be missed.

There is something for everybody in this exhibition. If the show were to be summed up in one word it would definitely be “inclusion.” From Photography to Furniture Design, Video Installations to Fashion, this Exhibition will splinter your notion of modern Africa and the modern Africans.

For decades contemporary African artists have been in the shadows of their western counterparts. If anything, the curators have almost sheepishly underrated the African Artists importance to the International community. Rather than the Africa voice muted, as is so often the case, the brilliance shines through and purely highlights the genius of so many individuals. Rarely do you see a display of excellence of this sort or on this kind of scale.

This year the organisers especially, Simon Njami amongst others, have excelled themselves and pulled out all the stops making this African Expo a veritable feast for all the senses.

This is an Exhibition that has long been in the wings and could not have come at a better time. In our tumultuous environment of racial tension and fear of retribution from our enemies this Exhibition is a landmark, a testimony to those that as yet, have rarely had a chance to be outspoken.

This exciting Exhibition has been over 3 years in the making and houses all colours and religions as never before seen. The Continent best know for famine and war has been given a fresh perspective. Finally, there is a respectable Africa Exhibition that will implant the powerful views and visions of modern Africa clearly in minds of those in the West.

The artists include: Yinka Shonibare, Allan deSouza, Jane Alexander, William Kentridge, Meschac Gaba, Moshekwa Langa, Hassan Musa, Ghada Amer. Works by El Anatsui, Andries Botha, Soly Cisse, Zwelethu Mthethwa are also represented. Video Installations from the brilliant Kenyan-born, German, Ingrid Mwangi.

I consider myself to be a normal intelligent human being, but I do have my failings. Regardless how long one lives you can never stop learning and today, I’m not ashamed to admit but probably ashamed to say, I only just learnt what the letters IDP stood for!

The revealation came during research into a story on the genocide in Darfur in which the Sudanese government are apparently allowing Arab soldiers to massacre droves of Black indigenous people and a UNICEF worker kept making reference to “an IDP” in her story. [Read the article here].

After consulting various reference manuals and websites I finally came across this definition of the letters IDP: Internally Displaced Person. And that’s when the realisation hit me: I had never heard this term before!

There really isn’t any logical excuse I can give why this should be such a massive surprise to me. But, I did reason in a kind of self righteous way, that if I did not know what it meant let alone familiar with it, then maybe others might also be in the same situation but probably not as honest in saying so!

In essence a displaced person is one who is thrown out, removed or separated from wherever it is they would normally live, stay or sheltered. The “internally” bit suggest, in this case, this is inside their local country. Put it all together and you get the full meaning.

After satisfying myself with that conclusion I looked up what other meanings “IDP” has. Here are a few others being used around the world:-

• Internally Displaced Person
  Peace In Sri Lanka
• Indicators of Development Progress
  www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/files/glossary_i.htm
• Individual Development Plan
  corpslakes.usace.army.mil/employees/glossmain.html
• Individualized Development Plan.
  outreach.missouri.edu/staff/marketing/acromyns.html
• Individual Development Plan
  www.bgfl.org/services/gifted/glossary.htm
• /I-D-P/ v.,n. [Usenet] Abbreviation for Internet Death Penalty
  info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/i.html
• 20/20 Insight GOLD’s unique individual development planning software.
  www.2020insight.net/Faqs/faqglossary.htm
• Internet Datagram Protocol.
  www.hifn.com/support/Glossary_I.html
• initial-delay position
  155.217.58.58/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/90-13/GLOSSARY.HTML
• Interac® Direct Payment (IDP) is the EFT/POS service, developed by the Interac Association, which allows cardholders to use their banking cards to pay for purchases at participating retailers.
  www.cashcityatm.com/atm/atmglossary.htm
• Initial Domain Part
  www.cisco.com/…guide_chapter09186a00800d81cb.html
• Integrated detector/preamplifier.
  www.aefos.com/html/glossary/i.htm

Whether Black is a positive or negative word depends on how you use it

The Oxford English Dictionary contains evidence of the use of black with reference to African peoples as early as 1400, and certainly the word has been in wide use in racial and ethnic contexts ever since.

However, it was not until the late 1960s that black (or Black) gained its present status as a self-chosen ethnonym with strong connotations of racial pride, replacing the then-current Negro among Blacks and non-Blacks alike with remarkable speed.

Equally significant is the degree to which Negro became discredited in the process, reflecting the profound changes taking place in the Black community during the tumultuous years of the civil rights and Black Power movements. The recent success of African American offers an interesting contrast in this regard.

Though by no means a modern coinage, African American achieved sudden prominence at the end of the 1980s when several Black leaders, including Jesse Jackson, championed it as an alternative ethnonym for Americans of African descent. The appeal of this term is obvious, alluding as it does not to skin color but to an ethnicity constructed of geography, history, and culture, and it won rapid acceptance in the media alongside similar forms such as Asian American, Hispanic American, and Italian American.

But unlike what happened a generation earlier, African American has shown little sign of displacing or discrediting black, which remains both popular and positive.

The difference may well lie in the fact that the campaign for African American came at a time of relative social and political stability, when Americans in general and Black Americans in particular were less caught up in issues involving radical change than they were in the 1960s. ·Black is sometimes capitalised in its racial sense, especially in the African-American press, though the lowercase form is still widely used by authors of all races.

The capitalization of Black does raise ancillary problems for the treatment of the term white. Orthographic evenhandedness would seem to require the use of uppercase White, but this form might be taken to imply that whites constitute a single ethnic group, an issue that is certainly debatable.

Uppercase White is also sometimes associated with the writings of white supremacist groups, a sufficient reason of itself for many to dismiss it. On the other hand, the use of lowercase white in the same context as uppercase Black will obviously raise questions as to how and why the writer has distinguished between the two groups. There is no entirely happy solution to this problem.

In all likelihood, uncertainty as to the mode of styling of white has dissuaded many publications from adopting the capitalised form Black.

African American Lives offers up-to-date, authoritative biographies of some 600 noteworthy African Americans. These 1,000-3,000 word biographies, selected from over five thousand entries in the forthcoming eight-volume African American National Biography, illuminate African-American history through the immediacy of individual experience.

From Esteban, the earliest known African to set foot in North America in 1528, right up to the continuing careers of Venus and Serena Williams, these stories of the renowned and the near forgotten give us a new view of American history.

Our past is revealed from personal perspectives that in turn inspire, move, entertain, and even infuriate the reader. Subjects include slaves and abolitionists, writers, politicians, and business people, musicians and dancers, artists and athletes, victims of injustice and the lawyers, journalists, and civil rights leaders who gave them a voice. Their experiences and accomplishments combine to expose the complexity of race as an overriding issue in America’s past and present.

African American Lives features frequent cross-references among related entries, over 300 illustrations, and a general index, supplemented by indexes organized by chronology, occupation or area of renown, and winners of particular honors such as the Spingarn Medal, Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer Prize.

Here’s an Extract

Onesimus

Born in Africa, Onesimus was a slave of Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister in Boston. When a smallpox epidemic broke out in Boston in 1721, Onesimus informed his master about an inoculation procedure practiced in Africa. The centuries-old practice was practiced throughout Africa and involved the extraction of material from the pustule of an infected person and, using a thorn, scratching it into the skin of the unaffected person. The deliberate introduction of smallpox gives the inoculated person immunity from the disease. In some cases, there is no reaction while a mild non-fatal form of the disease may occur in others.

Although inoculation was considered to be extremely dangerous, Cotton Mather was steadfast in accepting the reliability of the information provided by Onesimus, and convinced Dr. Zabdiel Boylston to experiment with the procedure. Beginning with his son and two slaves, he inoculated over 240 people.

The process of inoculation was politically, medically and religiously opposed in the United States and Europe. In religious circles, it was deemed unnatural and perceived as subverting God’s will. Public reaction to the experiment was so adverse that both Mather and Boylston’s lives were threatened. Records indicate that the inoculation process itself killed 2 percent of the patients who requested it, while 15 percent of the people who contracted the disease and were not inoculated died from the virus.

Onesimus’ recollection of a traditional African medical practice saved numerous lives and sparked the introduction of smallpox inoculation in the United States.

Traditional African medicine is a holistic science that incorporates considerable use of indigenous herbalism with elements of African spirituality. Illness is not seen as a purely physical problem; it can also be attributed to spiritual causes engendered by displeasing the spirits—ancestors or gods.

Traditional healers apply scientific and non-scientific methods. The scientific methods involve the prescription of herbal medicines, which have proven to be just as efficient and also provided the basis for Western medicines.

For example, kaolin, the active ingredient in Kaopectate, has always been used to treat diarrhea in Mali; the bark of trees which yield salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, has been prescribed by Bantu-speaking healers to cure musculoskeletal diseases.

The non-scientific methods involve the appeasement or expulsion of the spirit(s) responsible for the patient’s bad health. The social and psychological effects of these methods were highly successful. As in the case of psychotherapy, medication and the power of suggestion were used by traditional healers to treat the whole person.