A Heritage of great moments in the history of the continent and the black race
“In the West the past is like a dead animal. It is a carcass picked at by the flies that call themselves historians and biographers. But in my culture the past lives. My people feel this way in part because death does not separate us from our ancestors.” Miriam Makeba
Tutu is what people have recently termed the African Mona Lisa. It is the portrait of a Yoruba princess made by the renowned Nigerian painter Ben Enwonwu. The brainchild of Enwonu, who created it during the aftermath of Nigeria’s bloody civil war, “Tutu” is the painting of an Ile Ife princess Adetutu Ademiluyi (“Tutu”); it is said that he met her as he was driving . It had disappeared right after being painted in 1974, and resurfaced over 40 years later in a flat in London. On March 1st 2018, it fetched $1.6M in auction and has been celebrated by Nigerians around the world. The London auction house initially predicted a price tag of between £200,000 and £300,000 ($275,000 to $413,000), less than a quarter of the final bid. It sold for $1.6 million (£1,205,000), and has been dubbed the “African Mona Lisa.” So good to know that the princess whose painting it is, is still alive in Nigeria today, so maybe Mona Lisa may not be the appropriate name after all.
Please check out The Ben Enwonwu Foundation, and these articles on CNN (Ben Enwonwu’s ‘Tutu’ painting sells for $1.6M), BBC (Ben Enwonwu’s Nigerian masterpiece ‘Tutu’ sold at auction), and The Guardian (‘African Mona Lisa’ fetches £1.2m at auction in London). The Nigerian Booker prize-winning novelist Ben Okri said last month that “He [Ben Enwonu] wasn’t just painting the girl, he was painting the whole tradition. It’s a symbol of hope and regeneration to Nigeria, it’s a symbol of the phoenix rising.”
Growing up, 8 March also known as International Women’s Day, was always a day of marches. Women will go on marches or parades wearing uniforms, celebrating women. But I never felt like there was a real follow-up to that day. It felt like just another day, or rather a day invented to act as if for once women’s issues were important. I don’t remember much, but it was always a colorful, happy day, with women parading, singing, even sometimes allowed a day off from work or house chores. I don’t remember men doing much except helping women celebrate that day with flows of alcohol in the evenings in bars, or some quick news flash about it, etc. So I was quite surprised and happy to see what the Spanish women did on 8 March this year: protesting and stopping work for the entire day throughout the entire country of Spain, protesting for equal pay: International Women’s Day: ‘Millions’ join Spain strike, More than 5m join Spain’s ‘feminist strike’, unions say, Spain grinds to a halt as millions of women join unprecedented strike. To me, it was beautiful! The entire country was crippled, with public transportation being affected, and even air flights delayed. In South Korea, I saw a picture of men marching alongside women demanding equal pay, and I was moved.
The question of equal pay is a global or rather a human question. It does not just affect women, but men as well, and the entire society. Imagine a working couple with a family; imagine what that equal pay to the woman in that couple would do to that couple’s entire income? If women are paid 20% less than men, imagine what 20% more will do to the bills in a family, to the college funds for the kids, to the healthcare, and even to those long overdue family vacations? Now think about single household which are mostly held by women… 20% more is like a lifeline! It is everything! So we should all, men and women, fight for equal pay, instead of acting as if it was a female ‘thing’, because equal pay is a basic human need, and not doing it is an infringement on everybody’s rights out there! My salute to all those Spanish women, this is what International Women’s Day should be all about!
A few weeks ago, we woke up to the face of Cheddar man, the ancestor of the modern-day Briton: he was a Black man with curly hair, and blue eyes! If this was a shock to many, to us who had long espoused the ideas of Cheikh Anta Diop with the African Origin of Civilization, this came as no surprise. Africa is the cradle of humanity, so it is only normal that the ancestors of anybody out there should be black, and that in reality, the idea of race as we know it today should be abolished, since in reality we are all brothers and sisters, with the same blood flowing through our veins, and now (officially) the same ancestors.
O Cheikh Anta Diop, you, so despised by Western researchers who hated your work, because you said that Africa was the cradle of humanity; that everything started in Africa, and that Egypt and modern day Africans descended from the same ancestors, in other words, were the same people, you have now been vindicated many many years after!
A while back, I published an interview of Ernest Ouandié: A Cameroonian and African Hero and Martyr, on the murder of Félix Moumié. In this Rare Interview, which he gave with Marthe Moumié, the wife of Félix Moumié, in 1960, he said:
“When you have chosen the struggle, the path of struggle, for a true independence, you must necessarily expect to receive anytime the hard knocks that the imperialists will give you. But we are used to say that it is because the imperialists are beating us so much that we have become and are becoming stronger in our daily struggle.” [“Lorsque vous avez choisi la lutte, la voix de la lutte, pour une indépendance véritable, vous devez nécessairement vous attendre à tout moment aux coups durs que vous portent les impérialistes. Mais nous avons l’habitude de dire que c’est parce que les impérialistes nous portent beaucoup de coups que nous sommes devenus et nous devenons chaque jour un peu plus aguerris pour la lutte.”] Ernest Ouandié.
The president of Ghana has recently announced that Ghana will be getting off from the IMF. Based on the progress of the Ghanaian economy, Ghana expects to be able to pay all its loan, and get off from the 3-year IMF financial aid program. This is very good, as any country in this world, when they are well, need not be on financial aid forever, but should aspire to become more independent. I raise my hat to them, and hope that other African countries will aspire to work on being more financially independent! Now, let’s pray for President Nana Akufo Addo’s well-being, and pray for his vision to be completed.
The president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has delivered yet another good speech on Africa’s independence or rather on Africa taking its own future in hands. This is the second speech he delivers, in front of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, where he clearly states that Africa does not need his charity, but rather him [France] leaving Africa to its own hands [and its own money]. The first speech he delivered was in Accra, Ghana, during Macron’s visit to Ghana last December. There he had asked Africans to take their future in their own hands, and had almost humiliated the French president in public! So, enjoy!
We have evolved since the days of the 2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The African and Black presences at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics has more than quadrupled: 8 African countries are represented at these Olympics with a total of 13 athletes; Nigeria is featuring its First Bobsleigh Team ever, and it is all female! We also note that the Togolese athletes Alessia Afi Dipol, and Mathilde Amivi Petit Jean have come back from 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics to compete at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics; we applaud their endurance. I guess some of our brothers and sisters have lived in Northern countries, and enjoy these winter sports to the point of competing in them. We raise our hats to them. Below are the African athletes to watch for, and cheer for this year.
Eritrea : Shannon Adeba – Alpine skiing
Ghana : Akwasi Frimpong – Skeleton
Kenya : Sabrina Simader – Alpine skiing
Madagascar : Mialitiana Clerc – Alpine skiing
Morocco : Adam Lamhamedi – Alpine skiing
Samir Azzimani – Cross-country skiing
Nigeria : Akuoma Omeoga – Bobsleigh
Moriam Seun Adigun – Bobsleigh
Ngozi Onwumere – Bobsleigh
Simidele Adeagbo – Skeleton
South Africa: Connor Wilson – Alpine skiing
Togo : Alessia Afi Dipol – Alpine skiing
Mathilde-Amivi Petit Jean – Cross-country skiing
There are more brothers and sisters of African descent competing at these Olympics as well: 7 from the United States (with the multiple champion Shani Davis who has been a joy to watch in speed skating since the 2006 Turin Olympics), 4 from France (including 2 in figure skating), 3 from Brazil (all in bobsleigh), 5 from Canada (all in bobsleigh), 3 from Jamaica (with Jamaica first female bobsleigh team ever) and 5 from Great Britain (all in bobsleigh). I may have missed some, and if you see one I did not account for, let me know. We raise our hats to those athletes proudly representing their nations, and cheer them to victory!
“The colonists usually say that it was they who brought us into history: today we show that this is not so. They made us leave history, our history, to follow them, right at the back, to follow the progress of their history. Today, in taking up arms to liberate ourselves, in following the example of other peoples who have taken up arms to liberate themselves, we want to return to our history, on our own feet, by our own means and through our own sacrifices.” Amilcar Cabral
On Monday, January 22nd, Former Football star and Ballon d’Or George Weah was sworn in as the 25th President of Liberia, in the country’s first democratic transfer of power in over 70 years. Weah, a decorated football star, took over from Africa’s first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Liberians of all ages formed long lines outside the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium, near the capital, Monrovia, to watch Weah’s inauguration.
Moved by the population’s love, Weah said in his inaugural speech, “I have spent many years of my life in stadiums, but today is a feeling like no other. I am overwhelmed with the crowd and the energy here today, … Today, we all wear the jersey of Liberia, and the victory belongs to the people, to peace, and to democracy.”
He added: “I promise to do everything in my power to be the agent of positive change. But I cannot do it alone. … […] And so, My Fellow Citizens, I want to admonish you, that the foundation of the New Liberia must be reinforced by the steel of integrity. We need men and women, boys and girls, whose integrity provides the foundation of the trust that is required for Liberian society to benefit her people.”
Brother Weah, we wish you the very best in governing the beautiful country of Liberia. We know that your getting there stems for your great love of your country, and our prayers will carry you throughout this journey!
For the full speech, watch the video below, and read The Patriotic Vanguard Patriotic Vanguard for the full transcript of President George Weah’s inaugural speech. Enjoy!
