BBC Africa On Your Street

Feature: African music in 2006
A round-up of 2006 and look ahead to 2007
By Ilka Schlockermann

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/africaonyourstreet/feature_roundup06.shtml

Why we shouldn't legalise prostitution

When We Ruled

BOOK REVIEW

Every black household should own a copy of When We Ruled, Robin Walker’s epic opus chronicling African civilisation throughout the ages. Eloquently debunking the prevailing myth that African history began with slavery and ended with colonialism, Walker’s authoritative work goes in to painstaking detail about the Africa of our ancestors – the empires, the scholarship and the architecture - lending credibility to the much-maligned fact that Africa is indeed the cradle of humanity. Quoting from respected Arab and European establishment scholars and employing the use of maps and other historical imagery, Walker leaves no stone unturned in his quest to uncover the hidden truth of the continent’s former glory.

When We Ruled is a masterpiece of precision. Furthermore, it’s testament to the tenacity, conviction and vision of one man in search of the truth. Walker, who is now a secondary school teacher, worked for years as a night porter to support his research. Following in the hard-fought tradition of African-American scholars like DuBois, Walker is a pioneer of black British scholarship in historical African study. Such are the potential consequences of his groundbreaking work that historians, academics and liberals alike are frightened of what When We Ruled reveals. Even left-leaning papers like The Guardian have refused to review it and there will undoubtedly be people of African descent who, following years of Eurocentric conditioning will find some of Walker’s revelations hard to swallow.

At over 700 pages When We Ruled is a mammoth undertaking, both for the writer and the reader but it’s well worth the effort. Walker should be commended for he’s performed a great service to African and World history. The legacy of his work, if fully appreciated and embedded in the collective consciousness as it deserves to be, will be a more educated society, a more fulfilled people and a more productive Africa and its Diaspora.

When We Ruled by Robin Walker, published by Every Generation Media is out now priced £30 (Hardcover). Get your copy now. More info: www.whenweruled.com

Hip-Hop at its Best

Be, be, 'fore we came to this country
We were kings and queens, never porch monkeys
There was empires in Africa called Kush
Timbuktu, where every race came to get books
To learn from black teachers who taught Greeks and Romans
Asian Arabs and gave them gold when
Gold was converted to money it all changed
Money then became empowerment for Europeans
The Persian military invaded
They heard about the gold, the teachings, and everything sacred
Africa was almost robbed naked
Slavery was money, so they began making slave ships
Egypt was the place that Alexander the Great went
He was so shocked at the mountains with black faces
Shot up they nose to impose what basically
Still goes on today, you see?
If the truth is told, the youth can grow
Then learn to survive until they gain control...

Nas, I Can taken from the album God's Son (Columbia, 2002)

Beautiful Black Love: II

Girlfriends - The best show on TV

What makes Girlfriends, a.k.a Sex and the City for black women, so good? Great ensemble cast, excellent storylines, acerbic on-point one-liners and super sharp wardrobes. Compulsive viewing!

Girfriends is shown on Wednesday nights at 9pm on Trouble.

Beautiful Black Love

Blair's Myth of Multiculturalism

The Britishness currently on offer from New Labour, however, comes in just two flavours: Anglo and Saxon. Thus are the limits of the political class's understanding of cultural hybridity, rendering Britain a racially monolithic, ethnically pure and culturally static state into which non-white and non-Christian people can either adapt, or from which they should be banished.

"Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain Britain. Conform, or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed," Blair said. Quite what one does with the hate-mongers who were born here - whether they are the jihadists or the BNP - is difficult to fathom.

Gary Younge, At least in America they understand the notion of cultural difference, published in The Guardian, Monday, 11th December 2006

Ring the Alarm!

Mainstream magazine features black people on the cover! Albeit Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy but nonetheless the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair deserves an honourable mention for acknowledging the stars of a film that The Guardian rightly points out that “only a few years ago, would have been confined to African-American audiences, a black musical with black stars and barely a white co-star in sight. That the film is being considered - and heavily pushed by the studio - for Oscars is a major development in Hollywood and American mainstream culture.”

What's On Ghana magazine 2006 - Still Going Strong!