Africa- General Resources
This collection contains general resources about the continent of Africa. The collection draws from many types of materials (periodicals, books, pamphlets) and many different countries (Kenya, Guinea, Tanzania). Themes of the collection range from the role of women in African liberation struggles, a series of periodicals detailing various liberation struggles called Revolution in Africa, a book filled with continental maps throughout history and a journal focusing on issues of Pan-Africanism.
Documents
Radio interview of African Historians on leadership in Africa.
Call Number: AFR 038Format: Cass A & BProducers: WBAIProgram: WBAI African Liberation Day Special ProgramCollection: Africa- General Resources
A radio phone interview of African Historians and discussion of African leadership. Shelton Walden of WBAI New York interviews Historian John Henrik Clarke and other historians on the African Liberation Day Special radio broadcast. The historians talk about the mentality of leadership in Africa, the forces influencing the leaders, the dangers leaders face, and the avenues they should take to reconnect with the African people in unity.
African American historians discuss the African tradition and history in the United States.
Call Number: AFR 040Format: Cass A & BProducers: WBAIProgram: WBAI African Liberation Day Special ProgramCollection: Africa- General Resources
A WBAI radio program recorded in 1997. African Historian John Henrik Clarke, Historian and Temple University African American Studies Professor Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, and Syracuse University African American Studies Professor Horace Campbell discuss the African tradition and history in the United States. They speak about the forced migration of Africans to
America, the history and injustices of slavery and the development of African consciousness.
The African view of Blackness
Date: 1/12/1985Call Number: AFR 047Format: Cass A & BProgram: Ancient African Concept of Blackness -Inner Vision in the Eye of HorusCollection: Africa- General Resources
Recorded off mic.
Speech by Dr. Richard King about the African view on the physiology of blackness, and how people relate to the concept of being black. He speaks about melanin (skin pigment) in humans coming out of mythology, and the Africans hiding their science within mythology. He talks about the story of the Eye of Horus, the son of Osiris, giving the Africans the ability to see another’s inner essence. Lastly, he speaks about the black person’s skin color affecting the amount of sunlight is let in, thus creating weaker bones, and more dying off during the glacier age, proving that Africans are not just primitive people.
The African view of Blackness
Date: 1/12/1985Call Number: AFR 048Format: Cass A & BProgram: Ancient African Concept of Blackness - Inner Vision in the Eye of HorusCollection: Africa- General Resources
Continuation of AFR 047
Recorded off mic, relatively hard to understand.
Continuation of Dr. Richard King’s speech on the African concept of blackness. He speaks about how everyone has their own vision of blackness and mission in life, all threads that make the fabric of a nation. He calls people to value and hold on to their blackness.
Adelaide Sanford on African values
Date: 3/3/1990Call Number: AFR 049Format: Cass A & BProgram: To Be African in Today’s America - Toward Liberation!Collection: Africa- General Resources
Adelaide Sanford speaks about how Africans in America have rid themselves of the chains of oppression. She talks about how ancestral strengths and power do not fit into American society, and thus causes harm to the black psyche. Sanford says Blacks built the American economy and society (for example, music, religion, and ideas) that Europeans took credit for and denegrated the blacks while enjoying all that the black contributed. She also speaks about education in American prisons as a myth of justice. In feeling anger towards racial discrimination from whites, it is ok to feel anger, it just depends on what you do with that anger. Whites want to see a reaction, but do not give them the satisfaction or predictability. Lastly, she calls people to not buy into white American values because the black person’s strength only comes from African value systems.
Adelaide Sanford on African values
Date: 3/3/1990Call Number: AFR 050AFormat: Cass AProgram: To Be African in Today’s America - Toward Liberation!Collection: Africa- General Resources
Continuation of AFR 049
Adelaide Sanford speaks about improving education in America. She talks about changing education in America and fighting for educational freedoms. She calls the people to be aware of the power of the African story and to get it out to all people through the media. She speaks about the destruction of black civilization in America. Because of the association of the black man and drugs, particularly crack, a derivative of cocaine, as an agent of melanin in black skin pigment, people need to be educated about cocaine’s dangers.
John Henrik Clarke on the change and challenge of history for the African person
Date: 2/10/1992Call Number: AFR 074Format: Cass A & BProducers: Wahat productions, New York Urban LeagueProgram: Black History Month Lecture: The Change & Challenge of History in the 20th CenturyCollection: Africa- General Resources
Lecture by Dr. John Henrik Clarke about the change and challenge of history for the African person. He speaks about how it is more difficult to understand the changes and challenges of history if we do not read the basic history of our people. History tells a people where and what they are and have been, what they still must be. He comments on how most people simply look at the history of the world as a whole, but overlook the histories of each people. He talks about the differences between men and women, blacks, and whites. Lastly, he speaks about placing black relationships on a new level based on tradition and a common history. Quote: “You don’t beg for something that belongs to you, you take back what belongs to you.”
Discussion on the effects of global white supremacy on Africans
Date: 10/23/1991Call Number: AFR 053Format: Cass A & BProducers: UAM: United African MovementProgram: Global White Supremacy, Part 1Collection: Africa- General Resources
Recorded off mic.
Discussion on the effects of global white supremacy on Africans historically, legally, and psychologically. The audio begins with Imhotep Gary Byrd leading the audience in a song. John Henrik Clarke speaks how black people are the chosen people of God, and how historically, the Jews have benefited from the slave trade. He also talks about Louis Farrakhan, minister of the nation of Islam, and his contributions to the black man. He also gives a historical perspective on global white supremacy, saying that blacks do not understand white supremacy because they don’t understand white people. He asserts that whites feel superior because they aren’t rich in culture and family life like blacks are, and they want that without paying for it. Clarke calls people to read more and to become educated. He speaks about Egypt not being white because it is deep within Africa, so they cannot claim superiority over other Africans. He also speaks about the bastardization of Africans, physically through skin color, and mentally through the desire to be white. He claims there is no reason for white colonization except the whites desire for resources and to take over another people. He says that the only way to overcome global white supremacy would be for all Africans to unite.
Audio tape includes a rap song about race relations between minorities (blacks) and whites. No Justice, No Peace.
Afrocentricity
A panel of speakers discuss Afrocentricity. One speaker talks about the horrible colonization and supposed Christianization of Africa by the Romans. Another speaker, Professor Barnouw, answers questions about Africa and barbarism, as well as the Egyptian influence in Africa, such as the belief in black and white gods. Following his talk, there is live African drumming and music. Following the music, Elombe Brath speaks about the African music and other different styles of African music.
The history of the slave trade
Call Number: AFR 056Format: Cass A & BProducers: WBAI RadioProgram: WBAI Special Premium: “Spirits of the Passage”Collection: Africa- General Resources
Historian John Henrik Clarke reads Madeline Burnside’s book “Spirits of the Passage”. The recording begins with a background history of slavery in the world, and of the slave trade. Clarke, author of the book “Critical Lessons of Slavery and the Slave Trade”, speaks on the slave trade in its historical context. Professor of African American history at Howard University, Olive Taylor, explains how the slave trade has had an impact on dancing, and she also discusses international law and the slave trade. Ali Mazrui, creator of the PBS TV series “The Africans”, discusses modern day slavery in Sudan.
Side B is a continuation of Side A, with Mazrui speaking about South Africa, Brazil, and the Arab world’s involvement in the slave trade and racial categories.
