1968 Olympics: The divided legacy of black power

Forty years ago Tommie Smith and John Carlos risked everything to stand together and deliver the salute that shook the world. So why are they no longer on speaking terms?
Guy Adams reports
The Independent

Black Power Salute, BBC Four, 9pm

A New Era / Changing of the Old Guard

About time too!
(See also...)

Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown

The Barbican was the setting for a thrilling night of funk and frolics as legendary saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis led an all-star tribute to his long time collaborator, James Brown, at Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown.

Proving that good music never dies, celebrated musicians including Senegalese guitarist Cheikh Lo, Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and Vieux Farka Toure joined trombonist Fred Wesley and others to salute the Godfather of Soul. And what a night it was!

Interspersing traditional African music with Brown’s extensive back catalogue, the band - accompanied by singer Fred Ross, vocalist and dancer Wunmi and UK rapper Ty - put in a pulsating performance that had the audience dancing in the aisles, bringing the house down with interpretations of classics like I Got You (I Feel Good) and Say It Loud: I’m Black and Proud. But it was Cheikh Lo’s (above) hauntingly beautiful rendition of It’s A Man’s World that was the highlight, combining awesome musicianship with Brown’s signature showmanship. South African songstress Simphiwe Dana’s bluesy homage was also a revelation.

With each band member a star in their own right, Still Black, Still Proud was an awe-inspiring evening that’s testament not only to Brown’s indisputable legacy but also to the rich vein of African musical talent. It may be nearly two years since he passed away but the spirit of James Brown truly lived on in this wonderfully captivating show.

___

Still Black, Still Proud took place on Saturday, 14th June as part of the Barbican's Groove Nations Season.

Not Digging the Beat: John McWhorter

BY SYLVIA ARTHUR

Say what you like about John McWhorter, the controversial conservative thinker notorious for his provocative views on race, but he’s nothing if not articulate.

In his new book All About the Beat, McWhorter dismisses the popularly held belief that hip-hop is the savior of black America, doing for African-Americans today what the civil rights movement did in the Sixties. Taking particular issue with conscious rappers who, he says, chronicle the community’s problems without offering solutions, McWhorter insists that the answers to this generation’s troubles lie in political activism not lyrical vandalism against the powers-that-be.

Read more...

Destiny's Child: Solange Comes of Age

BY SYLVIA ARTHUR

Life could be so easy for Solange Knowles, the little sibling with the big family name. As Beyoncé’s kid sister and Matthew and Tina’s baby girl the burden of expectation on this young woman’s shoulders would be enough to bury even the broadest of frames. But there’s so much more to this multi-talent than meets the eye.

Read more..

Ayo: Help is Coming and Down on my Knees

Young, Gifted and Brown (GMaG)

Sylvia Arthur gets the low down from the UK's premier female saxophonist, a sister who’s doing it for herself

Rising star YolanDa Brown is out to prove that beauty, brains and artistic bent can be a marketable combination in a mainstream music celebrity. The 25-year-old PhD student is set to create waves in the industry with her saxed-up versions of Pop R&B and diversity is her U.S.P. A self-taught saxophonist, Brown is not what you’d expect from your typical instrumentalist. Not known for their intellect, less still for their good looks and worse for their sobriety, fewer still stand out because of their gender. YolanDa Brown is the exception.

The East London born child of Jamaican parents began playing sax at the age of 13, having studied a number of other instruments previously. But there was something about the saxophone that held her attention, keeping her captive for the last twelve years. “I played the piano and the drums but I wasn’t getting the same satisfaction from them as they’re things that you play on whereas the saxophone is something you blow in to,” Brown says. “I put a lot of myself in to the sax. It’s my voice.” Here she explains what it’s like to be young, gifted and YolanDa Brown trying to make it on the UK music scene.

How would you describe your music?
My music is conversational because I play a lot on emotion. I play by ear. When I started learning the saxophone I was taught for the first three years but since then I’ve taught myself. So I play by ear. What I say is that the saxophone is my voice. If I could sing then I’d sing almost how I play. It’s music for everybody, something that everyone can understand. And it ranges from genres – R&B, soul, reggae, classical, jazz – so there’s a bit of everything in there.

Who’s your audience?
That’s a hard question because when I did my last solo concert there was such a wide range of people there. When I joined Black Grape Productions, the entertainment company that manage me, two years ago, I did a lot of comedy shows, charity events and big theatre events mainly in the Afro-Caribbean community. So I had quite a big following from that. Having promoted the concert we had people there who were jazz lovers, gospel people from the churches that I play at and also people of all ages. The youngest person there was about 6 all the way up to people’s grandmas. So, it’s everybody really. I play a range of music from the oldies to the new to my original pieces so it’s for everybody.

How do you choose what songs to perform?
I do sometimes look at the audience that I’m going to play to but I also like to take people out of their comfort zone. For example, I grew up at school playing a lot of jazz and I like the jazz standards – Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, really moody. When I joined Black Grape that’s the kind of feel I was playing with and they were like, “Why don’t you try playing some R&B songs?” So I played Ne-Yo So Sick and My Love by Justin Timberlake and remixed those kinds of songs with my tip on it. Because I was going to all these comedy shows I’d play that for them, along with a jazz standard. You can imagine going to a comedy show playing a jazz standard and everyone’s like, “What’s going on here?” then playing an R&B track that everyone can identify with. So I always like to put some jazz in to anything I do.

How would you sum up the UK jazz scene?
I’m not involved in it as heavily as I could be. For me, I’ve taken the saxophone to places where it’s not usually seen or heard. I do play in jazz clubs like the 606 but the jazz scene for me is very underground. I’m a bit more contemporary and out there with the music. I’m not really following a scene. I’m just doing me.

Jazz musicians, instrumentalists at least, are predominantly male. What’s it like being a woman in the industry?
Its been interesting. I wouldn’t label myself as a jazz musician. I’ve been embraced more in the R&B and hip-hop industry than the jazz. The jazz scene, because it’s so underground, can be quite competitive and it’s more about what chops you have, what technique you have, who you’ve played with and things like that. I haven’t been embraced as warmly but now that I’m doing my second concert at the prestigious Cadagon Hall people are taking me for me. They’re not thinking, “She plays the saxophone, she should be playing like this.” They’re saying, “Wow, she’s doing this. This is her branding, this is her sound, this is her music, this is what she’s trying to communicate and we’ll embrace her like that.” I’ve got Soweto Kinch, who won the MOBO for Best Jazz Act, performing with me and he’s really open. That to me is a testament to how far I’ve come because at my first show I called many musicians that I wanted to appear on stage with me and they weren’t as open. Now everybody wants to take time to get to know me, which just proves that you just have to do it yourself and then the people will come to you.

You’re very well-educated. Why did you decide to pursue academia to such a high level?
This is a dilemma I’m going through at the moment. I love studying Management Science. It’s a passion and an interest that I have. I did my Masters and at the end of my dissertation I felt that there was so much more that I can do with this, that I still wasn’t finished. I applied to the Funding Council to get funding for my PhD and they said yes. I wasn’t doing it thinking I want to become a doctor or I want to lecture. I just felt that I haven’t finished with the work I’d started. With the music, after university I auditioned for Black Grape, which was a band at first that fragmented and they chose to market me as a solo artist. I went there not thinking that anything would come of it and all of a sudden out flourished this career. So both of them are my passions and interests but it’s always a struggle, a hard balance and a double-life sometimes. For me, I need to finish the PhD but I’d love to pursue the music after that and then maybe go back in to it.

Are you working on an album and when can we expect it?
Yes. I’ve released an EP which is called Finding My Voice and I’m working on an album at the moment. There are a lot of ideas that I’ve been writing but it’s also about finding the right producers to work with as well. It’s all in the pipeline at the moment but I’m working with people that complement my sound. So, we’ve been moving forward with it and it’s going well so hopefully mid-next year I’ll have something out there.

Soul Survivor (GMaG)

Sylvia Arthur talks to soul singer Rahsaan Patterson about his new album, surviving the music industry and coming out stronger.

The Real Thing
If you haven’t heard from Rahsaan Patterson in a while that’s because you’ve not been listening. The prolific singer-songwriter - an old-school favourite on the neo-soul scene - has recently released his fourth album in ten years, not bad going for an artist who’s been independent for the last three. With immense vocal talent and the ability to perform live like no one else, you’d think Patterson’s story of life in the music industry would read like a fairytale. Not so. His ascent up the industry ladder has taken many twists and turns.

The highly-respected vocalist and producer has been in the spotlight for over a decade with his 1997 major label debut Rahsaan Patterson introducing his unique sound to the soul-loving masses. The release produced the moderate hits Stop By and Where You Are but what the album lacked in sales it made up for in quality. This helped secure Patterson a fan base that has remained loyal throughout the years. After releasing his sophomore set Love in Stereo two years later, which featured the radio-friendly jam Get Here, Patterson again impressed critics with his Stevie Wonder-influenced style but failed to dent commercially. Seven years after first signing with the label, Patterson parted ways with MCA but instead of wallowing in self-pity he decided to take control of his own destiny.

In 2004 he independently released After Hours on Dome Records in the UK and on his own label Artistry in the US. “I really had no choice but to go the independent route at the time,” Patterson concedes, “because when MCA was no longer a label under the Universal banner I had to figure out what I was gonna do with my manager at the time. Luckily MCA gave me my master of the After Hours album so that really gave me the incentive to do it independently. After seven years with MCA I felt a need for a fresh start. The record industry and the major labels and all the shit that comes with it was pretty annoying and I wasn’t looking to do that again.” On this third album - After Hours - the music only got better with Patterson achieving new heights in his quest for musical distinction. Free from the burden of major label sales expectations Patterson was uninhibited and excelled at doing what he does best – making honest, eclectic soul that’s as tight and varied as anything that his contemporaries are producing. And he’s remained consistent. Patterson is one of the hardest working men in the business. While many of the artists he started out with ten years ago have been lost in ether – some shunning the industry altogether and others suffering the same fate as he initially did – Patterson has managed to continue writing, producing and releasing new music. “I don’t really think about what everybody else is doing. I’m just me,” says Patterson. “I just stay on my path and when I’m inspired I make music. And I’ve been lucky enough to have a path that allows me to continuously make music and have it released. I persevere and keep it moving and I try to constantly be inspired.”

Freedom
Patterson’s independence from MCA couldn’t have come at a better time. With the advent of iTunes and the digital music revolution allowing greater freedom for both consumers and artists it became easier to get music to the people. For artists like Patterson, who choose or have no choice but to be independent, the arrival of new technology has changed the game for the better. “Its been a blessing because it’s great to have another outlet rather than just the retail stores that can be difficult to get in to. But I think the industry has changed to a point where it’s forcing the music industry to pay attention to independent artists who are doing it themselves. And it gives us an opportunity to be heard and to do more shows and let our music reach people.” Ironically, Patterson has re-entered the world of big industry business through the back door. “I’m actually on Sony BMG with my group, SugaRush Beat Company in the UK,” he admits. “But major record companies are really all the same. Thus far I’m already seeing and feeling the same shit that I used to go through with MCA but what’s different now is that I know the difference so I don’t react to it. I don’t let myself be affected by it and just take it as it is. It’s interesting. I don’t know if I’d sign to a major as a solo artist though. Doing it this way just kind of makes it fun because I’m also in a group with other people and I don’t have to take all of it alone.”

Child star
Patterson was born thirty-three years ago in the Bronx, New York to a religious Pentecostal – Baptist family. He started singing in his church choir at the age of six before moving to California to pursue a career as a child actor. In 1984, after being discovered performing in a school play, Patterson was chosen to star in a leading role in the television series Kids Incorporated, which featured other young entertainers who would grow up to be big names in show business including Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, singer Shanice and Saved by the Bell star Mario Lopez. But it was music that was Patterson’s real passion. When his time on Kids came to an end he began working as a session singer, performing back-up for various artists. But it was as a producer that Patterson really came to the fore. Having produced hits for the likes of teenage superstars Brandy and Tevin Campbell, as well as industry vets including Jody Watley and others, Patterson caught the attention of executives at MCA and showed himself to be as good outside the booth as inside. And so began his journey to where he is today, to his fourth album Wines and Spirits, a wholly different proposition to his first, musically and spiritually. “The difference between Wines and Spirits and previous albums is just life experiences,” Patterson reveals. “I started writing my first album when I was 18 and it was released when I was 23 and that album pretty much captured those experiences from 18 to 23. Love in Stereo captured 23 to 25. After Hours captured 25 to 29. This album showcases a bit of the last 3 to 4 years of my life but also the last ten years of being a recording artist and the trials and tribulations that all come with it – the perks, the downsides and all that stuff.”

Wines and Spirits
On Wines and Spirits, his latest release, Patterson hooked up with his old songwriting partner, Keith Crouch who assisted with duties on his original effort ten years previously. Although they hadn’t worked together since 1997, the synergy between the two was instant. The partnership was heightened by a personal bereavement that both men suffered. Patterson lost his father during the recording of his After Hours album while Crouch’s father had also passed during the pair’s songwriting hiatus. The double tragedy was the catalyst for their renewed songwriting partnership. So was it a case of coming full circle on this record? Patterson thinks so. “Yeah, that was definitely the idea in working with Keith Crouch again,” he says. “He and I hadn’t worked together since the first album in ’97 and he had suffered the loss of his father as well. And I knew that whatever we would do in the studio would allow us to resonate and connect on another level from having had that experience that we would connect in a way which we hadn’t before.” The pair’s re-connection obviously worked, the result of which is an expansive and engaging twelve track album that critics and fans alike agree is Patterson’s best yet.

Legendary comparisons
On Wines and Spirits Patterson confirms his status as a musical powerhouse and his vocal versatility continues to draw comparisons to legendary artists from Stevie Wonder to Al Green. In probably the most famous accolade to have been given to the singer during his career, writer Jason King called Patterson the “supernatural love child of Chaka Khan and Al Jarreau.” So, how does it feel to be compared to two of the genre’s most celebrated living legends? “It’s extremely flattering, an honour and at times it feels obvious that it should be that way because they have basically affected my entire being and have taught me how to do what I do. But I don’t walk around thinking about it and allowing those comparisons to dictate what I’m doing or how I feel as an artist. That’s not really the point. And I think I’m also related to those people because of the art of it and the way I communicate through my art. It’s a little more than just the voice. That’s the surface level and the obvious part but when you go deeper again all of those artists have taught me how to be the artist that I am.”

Rahsaan’s alter ego
And that artist is a diverse one. Patterson is clearly a man who likes to keep himself busy. Aside from the constant writing, recording and touring of his own material he also finds time to perform with his group, SugaRush Beat Company, which is made up of Australian music producer Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Rogers, Danish soul singer Ida Corr and Patterson. The music, like the group, is an eclectic hybrid of funk, soul, new wave, pop and dance and has been compared to Outkast and Prince in terms of style. And Patterson loves the variety. Being in SugaRush allows him to indulge a side of his personality that he only scratches the surface of with his own music. “SugaRush probably goes deeper in to the area in which this album Wines and Spirits goes to. Vocally it’s a lot more aggressive. Definitely it’s a lot more fast-paced. It gives me another opportunity and vehicle to showcase my songwriting and keeps me broad as far as genre is concerned. And it’s fun. It’s artistic and something else to do outside of the ordinary. It keeps it exciting for me and hopefully it will keep it exciting for people who are interested in what I’m doing.”

So what’s next for everyone’s favourite soul singer?
“I’m gonna be back in the UK at some point because the SugaRush album is coming out in March and we have to do promotion for that. And then in the States I’ll be touring at the top of the year and I have to go to Japan for a tour there. So just continuously working, doing shows, feeling vibes, making records, challenging myself musically and growing as an artist and growing as a musician.”

Fire in the dark: Mos Def live

Dante Smith, the brilliant rapper that is Mos Def was in town last week to showcase some tracks from his forthcoming album The Ecstatic and run through a selection of his greatest hits. Playing two sold-out shows at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and Islington Academy, Mos worked his knowledgeable crowd in to a frenzy with classic cuts like Umi Says, Ms Fat Booty and Sex, Love and Money. Despite coming on stage at approx. 10.30pm on a Sunday night, Mos gave a solid performance in front of an audience that was clearly in awe of the talented Brooklynite. After the poorly-received The New Danger and True Magic Mos appears to have returned to form as one of the finest and most credible MCs in the game. Support was ably provided by London's own Pyrelli and Swedish-American hip-hop group OneSelf.

On another note, today I had the pleasure of interviewing an unusual rising star in the shape of British saxophonist YolanDa Brown. Brown is different because not only is she a black female instrumentalist in a male-dominated genre but she's also highly-educated. The 25 year old musician is studying for a PhD as well as regularly performing on the tour circuit and working on her debut album. Check out http://www.sylviaarthur.co.uk/ for more info on this woman to watch.

Until next week...

Wow! What a week its been...

Hello Peoples!
How're you doing?
This past week has been mad busy for me but that's just how I like it.
Over the course of the last seven days I've had the privilege of interviewing the cream of the crop of soul and jazz for the December issue of Clutch, the best online magazine in the blogosphere. Rahsaan Patterson, Amp Fiddler and Eric Lewis all feature so don't forget to check out http://www.clutchmagazine.com/ on December 1st to see the outcome of my conversations with black music's finest. Bookmark Clutch today.

BBC Electric Proms f/t Estelle and Kano

Lessons in transcendence: Rahsaan takes it to another level

Picture the scene: It's 9.30pm on a mild October Wednesday. A hardcore contingent of soul music aficionados are gearing up for a short but satisfying gig from one of the genre's most gifted artists. By 11 o'clock it'll all be over and we'll go our separate ways, content until we meet again. Job done. Now for what really happened. Enter the world of Rahsaan Patterson:

In Rahsaan's world there are no worries about getting up for work in the morning or how to make the long journey home when the underground shuts down. No. In Rahsaan's world, where he is the Pied Piper and we are his followers, time stands still as he guides us through his outstanding collection of finely-crafted material, from his eponymous 1997 debut through to Wines and Spirits, his latest offering. Locked in transcendence for two-and-a-half hours of pure musical ecstasy, Patterson's rapt audience are consumed by the sheer force of his talent. If heaven were a sonic construct this would be it.

Patterson's voice is the central tool in a superior six-piece band that features two fine backing singers and a keyboardist who's notable, not as the lone white guy in the ensemble, but as a brilliant multi-instrumentalist. With undertones of Prince that speak of admiration not imitation, Patterson is an exceptional vocalist who epitomises soul. He simultaneously provides a lesson in artistry for wannabes while raising the bar for his peers.

At a time when it's the norm for artists to race through a set with little regard for their audience, Patterson is an utterly unselfish performer who clearly sees his role as paying his dues to his loyal fan base. And we were certainly repaid in full. Extended renditions of Sure Boy, Don't Run So Fast and the Van Hunt After Hours collaboration The Best were particular peaks in an evening full of highs. This is a man at the top of his game. There's Rahsaan Patterson, then there's everyone else.

At the end of the night I was disappointed to be leaving the Jazz Café. Forced back out in to the real world, the problem of getting home and being at work in just a few hours brought me back down to earth with a thud.

But I, like the rest of the crowd knew that for a time we were in the presence of greatness, treated to a very special show from a consummate artist who's truly out of this world. I can't wait for Rahsaan to return. "Earth to Planet Patterson... Beam me up Scotty!"

Wines and Spirits is out now on Dome Records.

Review: Joe Guy is the man!

OK, I admit it. I was apprehensive about seeing Joe Guy, the new Roy Williams play currently in residence at the Soho Theatre. "Yet another production exploring the historically difficult relationship between Africans and Caribbeans, yet another vehicle for exposing our ignorance in public," I thought. Blah de blah, blah! And it’s themed around football to boot. Not my idea of a great night out. How wrong could I be.

This is not a play about football. Nor is it a clichéd or gratuitous attempt to cash in on the neuroses of black Britons. Rather, Joe Guy is an intensely engaging story of a young man wanting desperately to fit in to a society at odds with, and occasionally hostile to his culture and skin colour.

Joe Boateng is a successful Premiership footballer who arrives in the UK as a twelve-year-old from Ghana. Displaying a talent for hard work and the beautiful game doesn’t insulate him from schoolyard taunts about the thickness of his accent or the darkness of his skin. So taking solace from the adage that success is the best revenge he sets his mind to making it big as a way of getting back at the bullies.

The epicentre of the play is crystallised in a stirring and impassioned monologue which sees Joe transform himself from a harassed, awkward-speaking teenager in to a streetwise, slang-talking man. This marks a turning point in Joe’s evolution to wild egocentric, which ultimately sees him charged with rape.

The beauty of Joe Guy is in the detail. The dialogue is sharp and witty, delivered by a group of wholly identifiable characters that could have been drawn from any school or street in London. A stellar ensemble performance from an energetic cast makes it almost churlish to single out individuals. However, Abdul Salis in the lead role of Joe Boateng is a revelation and Mo Sesay, whose turns as a dim-witted bodyguard, an aging footballer and Joe’s curmudgeonly father are all equally utterly convincing. This combined with the fast-paced direction and simple but effective set makes Joe Guy an action-packed hour and a half of intelligent and compelling self-examination.

My one criticism of an otherwise excellent production is that some scenes were overly long, with a tendency to labour an already emphasised point. But this is just being finicky.

Williams’ unique powers of observation are evident through the crisp clear way in which he translates an otherwise overplayed subject in to a captivating cultural narrative of our times. All in all, Williams manages to encapsulate the complexity of a vexed and taboo topic without either trivialising or romanticising the

2007 has been a relatively good year for black British theatre but this is by far the best production I’ve seen all year. You have until 24th November to judge for yourselves. You have been warned. 4½ / 5.

Joe Guy is on at the Soho Theatre until 24th November. Book online or for more info, visit http://www.tiatafahodzi.com/.

Tourist jailed 'for being black'

A man wrongly accused of being an illegal immigrant may have been singled out just for being black, an Equality Commission spokeswoman has said.

Frank Kakopa has been paid £7,500 after the Immigration Service wrongly held him in prison for two days.

Mr Kakopa, originally from Zimbabwe, was on a short break with his wife and young children in 2005, when he was stopped at Belfast City Airport.

He had proof he lived in England but was still strip-searched and jailed.

More...

Bringing it home

Kwame Kwei-Armah
Published 25 October 2007 (New Statesman)

The debate over the exodus of Britain's black actors has finally begun. Now it is time to start talking about solutions

On 15 October at the Screen Nation Awards - dubbed the "black Baftas" - the founder of the awards, the distinguished Ghanaian producer Charles Thompson, bemoaned what he called a "talent drain of British actors running off to the States". I was both saddened and pleased by his comment: saddened because, as a black British actor and playwright, I know how serious the problem is, and pleased because, at last, people are actually starting to talk about it.
The overwhelming majority of black actors of my generation have found that their only hope of a career lies in America (an old maxim states that "in Britain, white actors have careers and black actors have jobs"). Rather than passing on tips about auditions, my contemporaries exchange advice about the "01 visa", the document that "provides admission into the United States of persons with . . . extraordinary achievement in motion picture and television production". I once read a very interesting comment referring to the former US general and later secretary of state Colin Powell. "It is his good fortune that they [his Jamaican-born parents] took the New York rather than the Southampton boat. If they had, he might have made sergeant." That sentiment increasingly appears to apply to the television and film industries, too.

More...

I urge you to read this

'I spend my days preparing for life, not for death'
Laura Smith
Thursday October 25, 2007

SCI Greene County Prison on the outskirts of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, sits low in the rural landscape so that it's easy from the restaurants and petrol stations on the main road to miss the barbed wire coiled in endless circles. Inside, the plush leather chairs that squat on shiny floors make it feel more like a private hospital than a maximum security institution. But the black men in prison jumpsuits cleaning the floor, eyes downcast, dispel any such illusions. Signs spell out the rules: no hoods, no unauthorised persons, only $20 in cash allowed.

More...
More on the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal campaign

Spike Lee in the New Statesman

Rebel without a pause
Stephen Armstrong

Published 30 August 2007

Once Hollywood's enfant terrible, Spike Lee is now directing blockbusters and TV shows. But, he tells Stephen Armstrong, he is still fighting for black cinema.

Click here for more

Oprah: Donating to charity wasn't enough

Frustrated with just donating money to charities, Oprah Winfrey says she built a school for poor girls in South Africa because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help.
"I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check," she told Newsweek magazine. "At a certain point, you want to feel that connection."
Winfrey spent five years and $40 million to build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg.
The school for 12- and 13-year-old girls has 28 buildings on 22 lush acres. The school includes huge fireplaces in every building, a yoga studio, indoor and outdoor theaters and a beauty salon. People criticized her, saying the school is too lavish for such an impoverished country.
"These girls deserve to be surrounded by beauty, and beauty does inspire," she told the magazine. "I wanted this to be a place of honor for them because these girls have never been treated with kindness. They've never been told they are pretty or have wonderful dimples. I wanted to hear those things as a child."

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!

Call to Action: Act now against this injustice!

RACE ATTACK VICTIM SENTENCED TO 2 AND ½ YEARS

A black man, who was viciously assaulted whilst travelling home with his girlfriend, has been sent to prison for defending himself against his racist attackers. Aaron Bennett 24 of Beeston, Nottingham was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday for causing facial scarring to two males who attacked him and hisgirlfriend on May 7th 2005. His attackers, James Morris and Jonathon Marshall both from Nottingham were not prosecuted and in a major injustice were given compensation for their injuries.

The judge claimed that the injuries received by Bennett and his girlfriend Philippa Tedds 23, were superficial in comparison to the lifetime scars received by their attackers. He claimed that Bennett had gone too far even though the weapon he used belonged to Morris who had stabbed him in the hand and thigh before he received his injuries. The incident took place yards from Bennett's home as he and his girlfriend travelled home from a night out. Morris and Marshall began verbally abusing the pair on the bus and proceeded to chase them once they had reached their stop.

Eyewitnesses testified to this, yet the attack was not presented as racially motivated in court. The driver of the bus Aaron and Philippa were travelling on made a statement stating that he had witnessed Morris grab Bennett as well as Marshall verbally abusing the couple. He also stated that he had witnessed the two of them chase the couple down the street. However, his statement was not used in court.

Several pieces of incriminating evidence, which could have been used by the defence, were omitted from the police inquiry in what can only be described as cover up. Police disposed of a mobile phone, which had been smashed by Morris as Aaron attempted to use it to call for help. No fingerprints were taken.The knife, which Aaron had used, was also not checked for Morris's fingerprints even though Aaron had said that Morris had stabbed him with it first. The judge said that he did not believe that it belonged to Morris yet did not have any evidence to prove that it belonged to Aaron either. CCTV from a house near by the attack caught footage of Marshall shouting, "Lets kill these cunts, lets kill um!" Another witness who lives near to where the incident took place testified to hearing loud shouts of "Nigga".

However the judge, who claimed that the pair did indeed provoke the attack, did not see that Morris or Marshall needed to be reprimanded for their part in the incident. This is even in light of the fact that Philippa received serious head injuries after being kicked in the head and dragged by her hair by Marshall.

This case is a perfect example of how institutionalised racism is still ingrained in Britain. The police acted against Aaron from the offset and made it as difficult as possible for the defence to build a case against Marshall and Morris. A member of Nottinghamshire constabulary, Robert Griffin, was aboard the bus when Marshall and Morris began their tirade yet he apparentlydid not see anything. Coincidently Griffin is a family friend of Marshall and Morris who are cousins, another example of a cover up.

The British justice system has proved that it holds allegiances only to its "own kind." The local media have also ignored the fact that this was in fact a racially motivatedattack and have seemingly not picked up on the fact that a gross injusticehas occurred. Aaron Bennett has been portrayed as a black thug who goes aroundscarring people when the truth is very far from that.

Something needs to be done to right this wrong. Please show your support for Aaron Bennett by publicising his story.