NELSON MANDELA AND PAN AFRICANISM

President Obama recently remarked  ... "And what Nelson Mandela also stood for is that the well-being of the country is more important than the interests of any one person," Obama continued. "George Washington is admired because after two terms he said enough, I'm going back to being a citizen. There were no term limits, but he said I'm a citizen. I served my time. And it's time for the next person, because that's what democracy is about. And Mandela similarly was able to recognize that, despite how revered he was, that part of this transition process was greater than one person."

While we mostly get what Obama was saying, the analogy by using George Washington was akin to putting your "foot in your mouth" because George Washington, the first President of the United States, was a slave owner for practically all of his life.

It's always tricky business when Americans praise Nelson Mandela, the most famous of all nationalist African leaders.  You have to be careful not to put your "foot in your mouth" or show ignorance about what Nelson Mandela really stood for, and his embrace of Pan Africanism.  Most folks don't even know what  Pan Africanism is or its history.

 

Pan Africanism: 

"Initially an anti-slavery and anti-colonial movement amongst black people of Africa and the Diaspora in the late nineteenth century, the aims of Pan-Africanism have evolved through the ensuing decades.

Pan-Africanism has covered calls for African unity (both as a continent and as a people), nationalism, independence, political and economic cooperation, and historical and cultural awareness (especially for Afrocentric versus Eurocentric interpretations)."

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Of Interest - Welcome Home:

Steve Harvey, in comical fashion, talked about his visit to Africa, and how he was greeted.  African Americans are often welcomed home (when they visit Africa) ... Africa is the ancestral home to many.

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Related:


Keep up with current news on Mandela HERE

Don't Miss the Pan African Film Festival (July 18 - July 20, 2013)



Nelson Mandela (biography)



Who is Nelson Mandela? Video



Pan Africanism (Wikipedia) 



African Union 



 Pan-Africanism for a New Generation.-Professor Horace Campbell Part 1 (VIDEO)

VIDEO 2 

VIDEO 3  

VIDEO 4



What is Pan-Africanism? by Alistair Boddy-Evans



Pan Africanism Today



The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World



 
(1962) Nelson Mandela, "Address at the Conference of the Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa”




Nelson Mandela: Obama praises his vision of equality and opportunity  July 1, 2013



Up to Mandela’s Legacy: ‘The World Will Be Watching What You Do’ by Mary Bruce, June 30, 2013


Obama Compares Nelson Mandela to George Washington by Jonathan Karl, June 29, 2013



George Washington and Slavery



Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)



African American & African Studies at UC Davis

NATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

 

January 31, 2013

From the Whitehouse page:

"Presidential Proclamation: National African American History Month, 2013

By The President of The United States of America

A Proclamation

In America, we share a dream that lies at the heart of our founding: that no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter how modest your beginnings or the circumstances of your birth, you can make it if you try. Yet, for many and for much of our Nation's history, that dream has gone unfulfilled. For African Americans, it was a dream denied until 150 years ago, when a great emancipator called for the end of slavery. It was a dream deferred less than 50 years ago, when a preacher spoke of justice and brotherhood from Lincoln's memorial. This dream of equality and fairness has never come easily -- but it has always been sustained by the belief that in America, change is possible.
 

Today, because of that hope, coupled with the hard and painstaking labor of Americans sung and unsung, we live in a moment when the dream of equal opportunity is within reach for people of every color and creed. National African American History Month is a time to tell those stories of freedom won and honor the individuals who wrote them. We look back to the men and women who helped raise the pillars of democracy, even when the halls they built were not theirs to occupy. We trace generations of African Americans, free and slave, who risked everything to realize their God-given rights. We listen to the echoes of speeches and struggle that made our Nation stronger, and we hear again the thousands who sat in, stood up, and called out for equal treatment under the law. And we see yesterday's visionaries in tomorrow's leaders, reminding us that while we have yet to reach the mountaintop, we cannot stop climbing.
 

Today, Dr. King, President Lincoln, and other shapers of our American story proudly watch over our National Mall. But as we memorialize their extraordinary acts in statues and stone, let us not lose sight of the enduring truth that they were citizens first. They spoke and marched and toiled and bled shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary people who burned with the same hope for a brighter day. That legacy is shared; that spirit is American. And just as it guided us forward 150 years ago and 50 years ago, it guides us forward today. So let us honor those who came before by striving toward their example, and let us follow in their footsteps toward the better future that is ours to claim.
 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2013 as National African American History Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh."

Related:

African American History Month

 

REGINA BRETT ON EQUALITY FOR ALL, AND THE ROAD AHEAD

Love this article
Obama's inauguration underscores equality for all: Regina Brett


By Regina Brett, The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer
on January 22, 2013 at 6:00 PM


"America the beautiful.

Yes, it was. 
 

From James Taylor singing, "Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies," to Beyonce belting out the National Anthem." 

 

 

REGINA BRETT ARTICLE CONT'D HERE

MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS GIVES THE INVOCATION AT 2013 INAUGURATION

MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS ON FINDING SOLACE AFTER HER HUSBAND'S MURDER

 

 

By Adam Desiderio, NBC News

 

 

"Invoking the spirit and struggles of the civil rights movement, Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, delivered the invocation for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration Monday, addressing the hundreds of thousands of visitors that had descended upon the National Mall." 

 

WATCH AND READ COMPLETE ARTICLE  HERE 

 

Related:

 

Medgar Evers

 

Myrlie Evers-Williams

 

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2013 PRESIDENTIAL LIVE CHAT AND UPDATES

FOR LIVE CHAT & UPDATES: 2013 PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION CLICK HERE


AND FROM A PROGRESSIVE PERSPECTIVE CLICK HERE

DEMOCRATS MUST TAKE BACK THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN 2012

Obama, Yes. And Win the House Too. by Roger Hickey

 

"President Obama is enjoying a post-convention bump in job approval (Gallup says 7 percentage points - from 45 to 52 percent) after the negative and divisive Republican convention, followed by the energetic populism of the Democrats in Charlotte. With large leads among women and people of color, and the stark contrast on economic issues building movement toward Obama even among white males in key states, the prospects for Obama winning a second term are starting to look pretty good.

 

 

But what about the House? Prospects for Dems keeping the Senate are looking better, but if the House of Representatives stays in Republican hands, even if President Obama is re-elected his second term will be crippled. Obama can still name good Supreme Court justices, and he can veto terrible legislation - both good reasons to vote for him - but, in the face of Republican obstructionism, he will be virtually powerless to pass economic recovery laws aimed at creating jobs and getting the economy growing and not shrinking.

 

Continue reading ..............HERE

MYTH OF A BLACK PRESIDENT

"the Atlantic" fascinating and deeply insightful article by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a must read.   Please read the entire article on "the Atlantic" website.
 

 

"As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration."
 

 

"The irony of President Barack Obama is best captured in his comments on the death of Trayvon Martin, and the ensuing fray. Obama has pitched his presidency as a monument to moderation. He peppers his speeches with nods to ideas originally held by conservatives. He routinely cites Ronald Reagan. He effusively praises the enduring wisdom of the American people, and believes that the height of insight lies in the town square. Despite his sloganeering for change and progress, Obama is a conservative revolutionary, and nowhere is his conservative character revealed more than in the very sphere where he holds singular gravity—race.

 

Part of that conservatism about race has been reflected in his reticence: for most of his term in office, Obama has declined to talk about the ways in which race complicates the American present and, in particular, his own presidency. But then, last February, George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old insurance underwriter, shot and killed a black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman, armed with a 9 mm handgun, believed himself to be tracking the movements of a possible intruder. The possible intruder turned out to be a boy in a hoodie, bearing nothing but candy and iced tea. The local authorities at first declined to make an arrest, citing Zim­mer­man’s claim of self-defense. Protests exploded nationally. Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea assumed totemic power. Celebrities—the actor Jamie Foxx, the former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, members of the Miami Heat—were photographed wearing hoodies. When Rep­resentative Bobby Rush of Chicago took to the House floor to denounce racial profiling, he was removed from the chamber after donning a hoodie mid-speech."

 

"The moment Obama spoke, the case of Trayvon Martin passed out of its national-mourning phase and lapsed into something darker and more familiar—racialized political fodder. The illusion of consensus crumbled. Rush Limbaugh denounced Obama’s claim of empathy. The Daily Caller, a conservative Web site, broadcast all of Martin’s tweets, the most loutish of which revealed him to have committed the un­pardonable sin of speaking like a 17-year-old boy. A white-­supremacist site called Stormfront produced a photo of Martin with pants sagging, flipping the bird. Business Insider posted the photograph and took it down without apology when it was revealed to be a fake."
 

 

Read the entire article, complete with an excellent interview with Ta-Nehesi HERE 
 

 

 

Related:

The Fifth Column dedicates page to Trayvon Martin

 

Follow the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case

 

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: THE PARTY OF NO

By Michael Grunwald

 

"TIME just published “The Party of No,” an article adapted from my new book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. It reveals some of my reporting on the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama before he even took office, including secret meetings led by House GOP whip Eric Cantor (in December 2008) and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (in early January 2009) in which they laid out their daring (though cynical and political) no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to a popular President-elect during an economic emergency. “If he was for it,” former Ohio Senator George Voinovich explained, “we had to be against it.” The excerpt includes a special bonus nugget of Mitt Romney dissing the Tea Party."

Read the rest HERE

OBAMA TEAM TRAINING

Obama Team Training

Maple Heights residents are invited to an Obama Team Training, Thursday, May 31st @ Maple Heights Library, 6:00 pm. RSVP now for team training in Maple Heights. http://ohio.barackobama.com/Ohio-Team-Training

Where: Maple Heights Library, 5225 Library Lane, Maple Heights, OH 44137
When: Thursday, May 31st
 

March 6, 2012 Primary Endorsements from Imperial Women

FEDERAL OFFICES:

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA- Barack Obama (D)

U.S. SENATE- Sherrod Brown (D)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS 9TH DISTRICT- Dennis Kucinich (D)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS 11TH DISTRICT- Marcia L. Fudge (D)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS 14TH DISTRICT-Dale Blanchard (D)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS 16TH DISTRICT- Betty Sutton (D)

STATE OFFICES:

STATE REPRESENTATIVE-8TH DISTRICT- Armond Budish (D)

STATE REPRESENTATIVE-9TH DISTRICT- Barbara Boyd (D)

STATE REPRESENTATIVE-10TH DISTRICT- Bill Patmon (D)

STATE REPRESENTATIVE- 11TH DISTRICT- Sandra Williams (D)

STATE REPRESENTATIVE-12TH DISTRICT- John Barnes Jr. (D)

STATE REPRESENTATIVE- 13TH DISTRICT- Nickie Antonio (D)

STATE REPRESENTATIVE 14TH DISTRICT- Mike Foley (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY OFFICES:

CUYAHOGA COUNTY PROSECUTOR- Subodh Chandra (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COUNCIL:

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 2- Dale Miller (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 4- Chuck Germana (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY DISTRICT 8- Pernell Jones Jr. (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY DISTRICT 10- Julian Rogers (D)

OHIO JUDICIAL OFFICES:

JUSTICE OF THE OHIO SUPREME COURT-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/1/2013-Robert Price (D)

JUSTICE OF THE OHIO SUPREME COURT-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/2/2013-Fannon Rucker (D)

JUSTICE OF THE OHIO SUPREME COURT-UNEXPIRED TERM ENDING 12/31/2014-Evette McGee Brown (D)

OHIO COURT OF APPEALS-8TH APPELLATE DISTRICT- FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/3/2013- Joseph Compoli (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/3/2013- Emannuella Groves (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/6/2013-Edele Passalacqua (R)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/7/2013- DeanVanDress (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/10/2013- Shirley Strickland-Saffold (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION-UNEXPIRED TERM ENDING 1/5/2015- Cullen Sweeney (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION-UNEXPIRED TERM ENDING 1/1/2017- Janet Burney  (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS JUVENILE DIVISION-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/1/2013- Frankie Goldberg (D)

CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS JUVENILE DIVISION-FULL TERM COMMENCING 1/2/2013-Alison Nelson Floyd  (D)

By: The Imperial Women

From ClevelandUrbanNews.com