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OBAMA THE GRAET HERO

Barack Obama a surpris en remportant le caucus démocrates de l'Iowa, ce samedi. Mais face à Hillary Clinton, perçue comme trop opportuniste par beaucoup, le jeune sénateur de l'Illinois a-t-il l'étoffe d'un gagnant?

Il en faut beaucoup pour abattre Bill Clinton, ce rescapé souriant de nombreux coups bas politiciens. Mais le jeudi 3 janvier, à l’annonce de la défaite humiliante de sa femme, Hillary, aux premières primaires de l’Iowa, la mine livide et dévastée de l’ex-président américain révélait l’ampleur de la catastrophe.

En regardant chanceler si tôt une candidature réputée inévitable par toute la machine du Parti démocrate, sous les coups d’un charmant nouveau venu de 46 ans nommé Barack Obama, élu en 2004 sénateur de l’Illinois, Bill détectait plus qu’un incident de parcours: une profonde quête de renouveau de l’opinion américaine.


Hillary Clinton: trop opportuniste
Les Clinton connaissent bien le phénomène. Il y a seize ans, en 1992, le jeune gouverneur de l’Arkansas d’alors avait remporté les primaires, puis le pouvoir, aux côtés de Hillary, grâce à un semblable désir de changement. Son mince pedigree ne l’avait pas empêché d’évincer George Bush père, homme d’Etat aguerri. L’histoire se venge. Le jeudi 3 janvier, les électeurs de l’Iowa ont refusé de lui accorder une postérité par le biais de son épouse, perçue comme calculatrice, carriériste et opportuniste.


En début de semaine, avant le vote du New Hampshire, ce mardi, les files d’attente interminables, malgré le froid polaire, à l’entrée des meetings d’Obama semblaient annoncer d’autres camouflets pour Hillary Clinton: une nouvelle défaite cinglante ou, au mieux, un coude à coude dangereux avant les primaires massives du "Super Tuesday", le 5 février.


"Elle a tout misé sur sa capacité à bien gouverner et à provoquer le changement par de judicieuses réformes, souligne Hank Sheinkopf, consultant politique. Mais les Américains, dans les deux partis, aspirent à découvrir de nouveaux visages. Frais et authentiques... " Le soir du scrutin dans l’Iowa, a contrario, Hillary, 60 ans, apparaissait devant les caméras de télévision entourée de son mari et de l’ancienne secrétaire d’Etat de l’ère Clinton, une Madeleine Albright épuisée, sur fond de supporters grisonnants.

Barack Obama: une cure de jouvence politique
Barack Obama, lui, longiligne et félin, gravissait au même moment une autre scène au bras de Michelle, sa ravissante épouse, en robe moulante bleue, précédée de leurs deux jeunes enfants. Un tableau minutieusement campé pour convoquer les mythologies de l’ère Kennedy et promettre une cure de jouvence politique à une nation aussi lasse du cynisme chenu de la Maison-Blanche des Bush que rétive à un "remake" des années Clinton.

Le choc des symboles explique largement le verdict sévère des premières primaires. Dans l’Iowa, seuls les démocrates de plus de 45 ans ont voté en majorité pour la sénatrice de New York. Plus de 85 % des moins de 30 ans ont choisi Obama. Ce raz de marée, accompagné d’une participation record des jeunes adultes, s’explique par le discours et le style d’un candidat capable d’entonner : "Nous allons soigner l’Amérique et changer le monde !"


A lire leurs diatribes sur Internet, les nouveaux électeurs manifestent aussi leur rancœur envers la sénatrice, à laquelle certains reprochent son vote, en 2002, en faveur de l’invasion de l’Irak. Obama, qui n’était à l’époque qu’un élu local de Chicago, a beau jeu d’assurer qu’il n’aurait pas trempé dans ce fiasco s’il avait été au Congrès.

Obama évoque désormais l’héritage de Martin Luther King, dans l’espoir de rallier, lors des prochaines primaires du Sud, un électorat noir toujours nostalgique des Clinton. Mais il ne trahit pas pour autant son credo consensuel, livré pour la première fois en 2004, lors de la convention démocrate de Boston – celui d’une nation ni noire, ni blanche, ni rouge conservateur, ni bleu progressiste, mais qui serait les Etats... Unis d’Amérique. "C’est une idée de génie, assure Sheinkopf. D’abord parce qu’elle reflète le ras-le-bol de la grande majorité des Américains devant le manichéisme de Bush. Ensuite parce qu’elle rappelle, sans le dire, à quel point Hillary Clinton divise, quant à elle, l’opinion."


La sénatrice de New York n’a pourtant pas dit son dernier mot. "La poésie est de mise pendant les campagnes, assure-t-elle. Mais on gouverne en prose." Obama, lui, ne démord pas de son slogan initial : "Le changement en lequel on peut croire."

FRANCE Vs RWANDA

Génocide rwandais: le rapport sur le rôle de la France remis à Paul Kagamé
16 nov. 2007

KIGALI (AFP) — La Commission rwandaise chargée d'enquêter sur le rôle de la France dans le génocide de 1994 a remis vendredi après-midi son rapport de 500 pages au chef de l'Etat rwandais Paul Kagamé, a indiqué à l'AFP le président de cette commission, Jean de Dieu Mucyo.

"C'est une compilation de 500 pages qui contient divers témoignages recueillis sur la responsabilité du gouvernement français dans le génocide de 1994", a précisé M. Mucyo.

"Nous avons achevé la première tâche et nous allons attendre que le président de la République se prononce sur la véracité de cette enquête pour enfin la rendre publique", a-t-il ajouté, précisant que le président rwandais devrait faire part de ses observations à la commission d'ici un mois.

Cette commission était officiellement "chargée de rassembler les preuves de l'implication de la France dans le génocide" au Rwanda en 1994, qui a fait, selon les Nations unies, environ 800.000 morts, parmi la minorité tutsie et les Hutus modérés.

En octobre et en décembre 2006, la commission, composée d'historiens et de juristes, avait organisé à Kigali des auditions publiques de témoins, dont des militaires de l'ancienne armée rwandaise, mettant en cause la France.

En février, le ministère français de la Défense avait dénié toute légitimité et compétence à cette commission qui envisageait alors de venir enquêter en France.

Kigali a rompu fin novembre 2006 ses relations diplomatiques avec Paris après que le juge français Jean-Louis Bruguière eut réclamé des poursuites contre le président Kagamé pour sa "participation présumée" à l'attentat contre l'avion de l'ex-président rwandais Juvénal Habyarimana le 6 avril 1994, qui a précédé le déclenchement du génocide.

Les relations entre Paris et Kigali ont toujours été tendues depuis le génocide. La France est notamment accusée par l'actuel gouvernement rwandais, dirigé par les Tutsis, d'en avoir entraîné et armé les responsables avant les massacres, ce que la France nie.

Début août, le chef de la diplomatie française, Bernard Kouchner, s'était déclaré prêt à se rendre "au plus vite" au Rwanda, dès qu'"un certain nombre de choses seront aplanies".

Mais ce déplacement n'a pas pu se concrétiser jusqu'à présent

FPR UMURYANGO W'ABANYARWANDA

IJAMBO RYA NYAKUBAHWA PAUL KAGAME,

PEREZIDA WA REPUBULIKA Y'U RWANDA ,

KW'ISABUKURU YA CUMI NA KABIRI

YO KUBOHOZA IGIHUGU



Stade Amahoro, Itariki 04 Nyakanga 2006


Nyakubahwa Perezida wa Sena;

Nyakubahwa Perezida w'Umutwe w'Abadepite;

Nyakubahwa Minisitiri w'Intebe;

Nyakubahwa Perezida w'Urukiko rw'Ikirenga:

Ba Nyakubahwa Baminisitiri;

Banyakubahwa Basenateri;

Banyakubahwa Badepite;

Banyakubahwa muhagarariye Ibihugu byanyu n'Imiryango Mpuzamahanga;

Banyakubahwa Bakuru b'Ingabo na Polisi by'Igihugu;

Banyakubahwa Bashyitsi bacu;

Banyarwanda, Banyarwandakazi.



Mbanje kubasuhuza mwese, mbifuriza umunsi mwiza.

Bibaye inshuro ya cumi na kabiri twizihiza isabukuru yo kubohoza Igihugu cyacu.

Uyu munsi twibuka ibintu byinshi bikubiye mu kwibohoza kw'Abanyarwanda, mu kurwanya politiki mbi, kugira ngo kwibohoza bishoboke mu Rwanda .

Kwibohoza ngira ngo dukwiriye kubiha kumvikana ku buryo busobanutse.

N'izi ntwari z'uyu munsi tumaze guha impeta, mu bikorwa byabo bagize, bakwiriye kutwibutsa ibikubiye mu kwibohoza, n'inshingano zabyo.

Bikwiriye kumvikana ko Abantu baharanira kwibohoza kubera impamvu zitandukanye.

Ariko igikubiye muri uku kwibohoza kigaragara, ni uko Abantu baba batishimiye uko bariho, cyangwa se uko bayoborwa.

Abantu baba batabona ibyo bakwiriye, uko bakwiriye kuba bariho, ndetse no kubuzwa agaciro cyangwa ubuzima bibakwiriye.

Icyo bivuze ni uko abayobozi muri poliki bakurikiza baba basa n'aho bashobora guha, cyangwa bakima, Abantu uburenganzira bwabo.

Kuyobora Abantu neza no kugira politiki nziza ntabwo ari ukubagirira ineza, si ukubaha ‘favour'.

Kuyoborwa neza na politiki nziza ni uburenganzira bwa buri muntu, ntawe uhitamo politiki nziza nk'ineza agiriye abandi.

Abantu kugezwaho ibyo bakwiriye ni ngombwa, ntawabishimirwa abikoze. Niba umuyobozi atanyereje umutungo w'Abaturage, kandi nyine umutungo wose uva mu maboko y'Abaturage, si ukuvuga ko aba abagiriye neza.

Kutica Abaturage, ntabwo ari ukubagirira neza. Nta politiki yica ibaho, habaho politiki yo gukiza. Ubuyobozi butagira nabi, budakenesha cyangwa se butica buba bukurikiza inshingano zabwo.

Abo twavuga ko bagize neza mu bikorwa ni nk'abangaba b'Intwari bamaze guhabwa impeta kubera ibyiza bakoze birenze, bitagaragaraga nk'aho ari ubushobozi bwabo.

Kwibohoza rero bituruka kuko Abantu baba baravukijwe uburenganzira bwabo. Biharanirwa kuko Abayobora politiki baba batageza ku Bantu ibyo bagomba.

Birumvikana ko kwibohoza bigira inzego nyinshi. Hari ukwibohoza biva ku rugamba, nk'ibyakozwe na bamwe mu ntwari zimaze kubona imidari.

Hari ariko n'urundi rwego rwo guhindura amatwara, Abantu bakavanaho icyababuzaga amahoro cyangwa amajyambere; bakavanaho icyabashyiragamo amacukubiri cyangwa icyabicaga, nka politiki ya jenoside, n'ibindi; bakavanaho ikibabuza ubuzima bubabereye.

Ni nayo mpamvu no kuri uyu munsi hashyizwe imbere ibikorwa bigaragaza imibereho myiza, amajyambere n'ubukungu; ibikorwa bigamije kwerekana ko Abantu bose bafite uruhare mu kwitezimbere.

Ibyo byose bigaragaza ko kwibohoza ari urugendo rurerure, ko ari ibintu bikomeza, bihoraho. Kwibohoza ni ibintu biva ku rwego rumwe bikajya ku rundi, bikava ku rubyiruko rukura rugahereza urundi.

Ibintu biranga ubwiza bw'ubuzima bw'Abantu, uko bukwiriye kuba bumeze, bigakomeza, bigahoraho, si ibintu bitangwa nk'ineza, ngo ushaka abe yabyimana: bikwiriye kuba umuco.

Kandi birumvikana ko umuco w'Abantu kugira ububasha bwo kwiha ibibakwiriye, kwiha imbarag zo kubigiramo uruhare bakabyigezaho, bigira iteka abatabyumva, cyangwa ababirwanya.

Ni yo mpamvu urugamba ruba rufite intego yo kugira ngo hahoreho Abantu biganje bumva ko Abanyagihugu bagomba kugira ubuzima bwiza, ko bagomba guhabwa agaciro no kugira uruhare mu byo bigezaho bibafiye akamaro.

Abagira nabi, abumva nabi bagashyigikira politiki mbi, ntibabe ari bo biganza, nk'uko byabaye mu bihe byashize twabonyemo itsembabwoko, itsembabanyarwanda.

Ibyabaye byatumye u Rwanda rubura amajyambere ngo ruterimbere, kuko rwabuze n'abarwo, bakabaye bayarugezaho.

Banyarwanda, Banyarwandakazi;

Kwibohoza bijyanye n'insanganyamatsiko y'uyu munsi nabyo bitugaragariza ko utibeshejeho, ugitunzwe n'abandi, aba ataribohoza.

Nta kwibohoza kuri mu guhora Abantu basabiriza, kuko izi ntambara zose zirimo izi ntwari zitandukanye twabonye, ni intambara zigamije guhindura ubuzima bw'Abanyarwanda. Ni intambara zifite gahunda, ziharanira guha Abanyarwanda agaciro, bakibeshaho ntibasabirize.

Uru rwego rw'izi ntwari n'ibikorwa byazo, ni ibitwereka ko no kubaho tudasabiriza bishoboka. Ntiwarwana urugamba ushobora gutakazamo ubuzima nk'urw'amasasu benshi batakajemo ubuzima, udafite icyo ugamije kugeraho.

Ntiwatsinda urwo rugamba rw'amasasu, warahanganye na za burende, indege, ingendo z'ibirometero ibihumbi, utarya ngo ubone amazi, udafite icyo ushaka kugeraho.

Kandi niba umuntu atsinze urwo rugamba, kuki urundi rwamunanira?

Kunanirana byashoboka ari uko Abantu barugiyemo batumva ikibatwaye ku rugamba. Cyangwa se byaterwa n'uko Abantu barangije urwego rumwe rw'urwo rugamba bakibagirwa ko hari urundi rwego rw'urwo rugamba rugomba kubakira kuri iyo ntango.

Uru rwego rwa kabiri kandi, buri Munyarwanda agomba kurugiramo uruhare, yaba ayobora cyangwa ayoborwa. Ni urwego rw'urugamba rushingira ku kubaka mu bitekerezo, mu mvugo no mu bikorwa, kandi rugamije guha buri Munyarwanda agaciro.

Uru rwego rw'urugamba rukwiriye kutwumvisha ko nta muntu dusaba kutugirira neza, ngo niba atatugiriye neza turimbuke. ‘Liberation' ntibamo gusaba ‘favour', kwibohoza ni uguharanira uburenganzira bwawe.

Ruswa, amacakubiri, ubwicanyi, n'ibindi nk'ibyo, kutatubamo ntawe twabisaba, ni twe tugomba kumenya akamaro kabyo, tukabyiha. Niba ibyo tubyumvise, ukwibohoza kwacu kuzashinga imizi.

Banyarwanda, Banyarwandakazi;

Ndagira ngo rero mbasabe ko uyu munsi wajya utwibutsa ibyo byose, ahubwo ukanatuviramo ibitekerezo n'imbaraga byiyongereye, ndetse na bishya.

Ibyo nitubyumva, ndemeza ko imikorere yacu izarushaho kuba myiza, bigatuma tuzirikana ko inshingano zacu zitarangiye itariki enye Nyakanga 1994. Tukamenya ko icyo gihe hariharangiye urwego rumwe rw'urugamba, ubu harakomeza urundi narwo rukomeye, ndetse rwanagira uburemere burenze ubw'urwa mbere.

Nagira ngo kandi nibutse ko kugira ngo tugere ku ngamba zacu, dukwiriye kuzirikana ibikorwa biteganya ejo hazazaDukwiriye kureba amasomo y'u Rwanda rw'ejo hahise, tugakora tureba u Rwanda rw'ejo hazaza.

Ibi biradusaba kureba abana b'u Rwanda, urubyiruko, kuko aribo Rwanda duhanze amaso.

Ikindi nakwibutsa ni ukureba inzego dukoreramo, kuko izi nzego zikwiriye kureba inyungu rusange. Dukwiriye kumenyere ko iyo umuntu umwe avuye ku mwananya runaka bidakwiriye guhagarika ubuzima.

Icya gatatu nakwibutsa, ni ukumenya kwitanga, no kureba imbere. Umuntu ntiyirebe ku giti cye, azirikana inyungu ze bwite, bikunze kugaragara cyane cyane mu Bayobozi.

Mu gusoza, ndagira ngo nongere gushimira mwese mwibutse uyu munsi mukawitabiura. Uyu munsi kandi wikubiyemo iminsi ibiri, kuko ari bwo twibuka ubwigenge twabonye itariki ndwi Nyakanga 1962.

Nkaba nsaba ngo dushimire Abanyarwanda bose, ingabo z'u Rwanda hamwe n'inshuti zacu. Ndasba kandi ko Abanyarwanda tuzirikana gukora tugakomeza gutezimbere agaciro twaharaniye. Iyo ni yo nshingano y'ibanze ikubiye mu zindi nshingano zo kwibohoza.

Murakoze, mugire umunsi mwiza n'amahoro y'Imana.

my pictures

PICTURES

PICTURES

THESE ARE MY PICTURES AND THE PICTURES OF FRIENDS AND RELATIVES

my pictures with the member of my family and some of my friends

kwita izina celemony

The Kwita Izina is an annual event held in Rwanda to celebrate the births of Africa's greatest mammal, the majestic Mountain Gorilla.






The annual Gorilla Naming Ceremony is a tradition of the Banyarwanda people, celebrated for decades. This ceremony is known as 'Kwita Izina' which means 'to give a name'. The Gorilla Naming Ceremony is a conscious effort to not only raise awareness of the Gorillas in Rwanda, but also to highlight Rwanda as an excellent tourist destination.

Celebrating the birth of Gorillas in Rwanda in their natural habitat is the main purpose behind this event, which is on its way to becoming one of the world’s premier tourist events in Rwanda. The theme of this year’s event was 'Caring for Wildlife concerns us all'. Every birth is a confirmation of a successful conservation and protection program, with the hope of one day removing the Mountain Gorilla off the endangered species list.

This year the ceremony was held on the 30 June 2007 and saw 23 Gorilla being named. Rwanda is proud to be the first country to have a public Gorilla naming ceremony and intends to use this event to firstly, raise awareness at a national and international level to protect the few remaining Mountain Gorilla, secondly, to announce the success of Rwanda's conservation efforts of the Mountain Gorilla and thirdly, to attract tourists to the Kwita Izina ceremonies.

This year the Gorilla Naming Ceremony was held in Musanze district in Kinigi, Rwanda. Under the theme of 'Caring for Wildlife Concerns us all', the event aims to celebrate the efforts of those who have selflessly contributed to the welfare and conservation of wildlife and its success thereof.


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Akon

Akon biography
Akon Lyrics
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akon

Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, often going by the shorter Aliaune Thiam (born 14 October 1981 in St. Louis, Missouri; raised in Dakar, Senegal), and better known by stage name Akon, is a Grammy Award-nominated Senegalese hip-hop and R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He is the founder of both Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution. Other sources have his name as Alioune Badara Thiam.

Akon is the son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam. He grew up in Senegal until he was seven, split time between Senegal and the U.S. until he was fifteen, then his family permantently moved to Jersey City, New Jersey and as such he speaks English, French, and Wolof. In Jersey City he attended Snyder High School,[citation needed] where he discovered hip hop music. His first song was entitled "Operations of Nature," which he recorded at age 15. However, he was jailed for armed robbery and drug distribution charges, and used his time in prison to work on his music. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in his home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which released Akon's debut LP Trouble in June 2004. The album is a hybrid of Akon's silky, West African-styled vocals mixed with East Coast and Southern beats.


Akon's solo debut album, Trouble was released on June 29, 2004. It spawned the hit singles "Locked Up" and "Lonely," as well as "Belly Dancer (Bananza)," "Pot Of Gold," and "Ghetto." "Locked Up" reached the top 10 in the U.S. and the top five in the UK, and was written after Akon served time in jail for grand theft auto. His manager Robert Montanez was shot to death following a dispute in New Jersey in December 2005. "Ghetto" became a radio hit when it was remixed to include verses from legendary rappers 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. In 2005, he released the single "Lonely" (which samples Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely"). The song reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the charts in Australia, the UK and Germany. His album also climbed to number one in the UK in April, 2005. When music channel The Box had a top ten weekly chart, which was calculated by the amount of video requests, Akon's "Lonely" became the longest running single on the top of the chart, spanning over 15 weeks. In 2005, Akon gained more popularity after being featured on Young Jeezy's debut album, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, on the song "Soul Survivor" which became a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Akon served a three-year jail sentence for grand theft auto, an experience that inspired his Locked Up.

Akon's sophomore album, entitled Konvicted, was released on November 14, 2006. Konvicted included collaborations with Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Styles P. Late August 2006, Akon released the single "Smack That" featuring Eminem, from the album. This single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for five weeks. The music video for "Smack That" was directed by Raymond Garced. "I Wanna Love You", the second single off Konvicted, was released in September 2006. It is a collaboration between Akon and Snoop Dogg. This single earned Akon his first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and Snoop's second. "I Wanna Love You" topped the U.S. charts for two consecutive weeks. In January 2007, Akon released his third single "Don't Matter" which so far has reached five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Konvicted debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 285,000 copies in its first week. After only six weeks, Konvicted sold more than one million records in the U.S. and more than 1.3 million worldwide. Konvicted has continued to stay in the top twenty of the Billboard 200 after 14 weeks, and it peaked on three consecutive weeks, not including its debut. Currently it has sold more than 1.5 million records in the U.S. and 2.2 million worldwide.

On the week of October 5, Akon broke a record on the Hot 100, as he achieved the largest climb in the chart's 48-year-history with "Smack That" jumping from number 95 to number seven. The song's monstrous leap is fueled by its number six debut on Hot Digital Songs with 67,000 downloads sold.

In 2006, Akon started his new record label Kon Live Distribution under Interscope Records. The first artist to sign was Chilli from TLC. Her debut solo album Point of View will be released under Kon Live. Earl Ray has also been signed to the label.

In December 2006, Akon's "Smack That" was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.

He was featured on Gwen Stefani's latest album, The Sweet Escape. He made an appearance on the title track and second single, "The Sweet Escape". The song was produced by him. On December 10, 2006 both Akon and Stefani appeared as musical guests on Saturday Night Live, however they did not perform the song as Stefani had not yet learned the lyrics. "The Sweet Escape" has reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Akon collaborated with Chamillionaire on his latest mixtape entitled, Mixtape Messiah 2. He is featured on "Ridin' Overseas", which Akon also produced. The mixtape became available for download on Chamillionaire's website as of December 24, 2006.

There is a strong rumor going around that a collaborative album between Akon and Young Jeezy is in the works. It may be released later this year or possibly next year. After their 2005 Akon-produced single, "Soul Survivor", the duo says that there is a lot more to expect from them in the future. Jeezy has stated that the album will be somewhat similar to Jay-Z and R. Kelly's The Best of Both Worlds or Unfinished Business collaborative albums.

Akon is set to embark on a world tour in 2007. Starting in Africa, he'll swing through Europe and then segue to the United States. There is no word yet on supporting acts, but Akon told Billboard.com, "We'll probably get the hottest act in whatever region we're in." When asked about strong rumors that he'll be collaborating with Michael Jackson, Akon just laughed, saying only, "Right now that's in the air. I can't talk about it." He offers up the same laugh and vague response when queried about working on Elton John's next album. Akon was also effusive about another upcoming collaboration: Whitney Houston. "I'm working on more uptempo records for her," he says. "She's been through a lot and has a dark history. So we've got to make the album brighter because she's come out of the cave now. She wants a celebration. She needs to come back to the old Whitney we remember."

Akon is rumored to make an appearance on Papoose's major label debut album, The Nacirema Dream. Currently the track, "Go to War (Ghetto Soldier)" on which Akon is featured, is tentative. The Nacirema Dream is slated to be released March 2007.

Akon is scheduled to appear on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's upcoming album Strength and Loyalty. He will be featured on the album's lead single entitled "I Tried", which will be released in February, 2007. He is also rumoured to be featured on the second single as well, which is "Never Forget Me". The album will be released on April 17, 2007.

Not for Sale, Kardinal Offishall's fourth solo album, and his first as a member of Konvict Muzik, is scheduled for release in early 2007. The Toronto-based rapper's album will feature established artists such as Lil' Wayne, De La Soul, Clipse, Rihanna and Stat Quo. It is confirmed that Akon will be the executive producer of the album.

Three 6 Mafia's eight studio album, Da Last 2 Walk is expected to feature guest appearances by Akon in addition to appearances from T.I., Paul Wall, Lil' Scrappy, Young Buck and more. It will be released Spring 2007.

T.I.'s 5th album, T.I. vs. T.I.P., is scheduled for release in the summer of 2007. It will boast production from high profile producers such as Dr. Dre, Eminem, Lil Jon, Just Blaze, Timbaland, as well as Akon. Akon is also expected to make a guest appearance on the album.

We The Best is the upcoming sophomore album from DJ Khaled, scheduled for release in the summer of 2007. The lead single, "We Takin' Over" will feature T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Lil Wayne and Birdman as well as Akon.

Akon is rumoured to be featured on Juvenile's upcoming album, entitled Diary of a Soulja. "The Verdict" and "I'm So Fly" are two tracks that Akon is featured on and may make the album. The album is schelduled to be released during the third quarter of 2007.

Epiphany, the sophomore album by T-Pain will be executively produced by Akon. The album is expected to be released sometime 2007.

Upcoming Aftermath rapper, G.A.G.E. will release his debut solo album, The Soundtrack To My Life sometime in 2007 and is expected to feature production from Dr. Dre, Scott Storch, Cool & Dre and others. The album can expect to have appearances from Akon, Busta Rhymes, The Game, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, T.I., and many more.




AKON LYRICS

"Ghetto"

Ghetto, Ghetto, Ghetto, Ghetto livin

[Verse one]

These streets remind me of quicksand (quicksand)
When your on it you'll keep goin down (goin down)
And there's noone to hold on too
And there's noone to pull you out
You keep on fallin (falling)
And noone can here you callin
So you end up self destructing
On the corner with the tuli on the waist line just got outta the bing doin state time
Teeth marks on my back from the canine
Dark Memories of when there was no sunshine
Cause they said that I wouldn't make it
(I remember like yesterday)
Holdin on to what god gave me

[Chorus]

Cause thats the life when ur
Living in the (ghetto)and
Eating in the (ghetto)or
Sleeping in the (ghetto) (ghetto)
Cause thats the life when ur
Living in the (ghetto)and
Eating in the (ghetto)or
Sleeping in the (ghetto, ghetto, ghetto)

[Verse two]

No need to cherish luxuries (cause everythin' come and go)
Even the life that you have is borrowed
(Cause your not promised tomorrow)
So live your life as if everydays' gon be your last
Once you move forward can't go back
Best prepare to remove your past

Cause ya gotta be willin to pray
Yea There gotta be (there gotta be) a better way oh
Yea ya gotta be willing to pray
Cause there gotta be (there gotta be) a better day (ay)

Whoever said that this struggle would stop today
A lot of niggas dead or locked away
Teenage Women growing up with aids

[Chorus]

Cause thats the life when your
Living in the (ghetto) oh
Eating in the (ghetto) or
Sleeping in the (ghetto, ghetto)
Thats the life when ur
Living in the (ghetto)oh
Eating in the (ghetto) or
Sleeping in the (ghetto, ghetto, ghetto)

[Bridge]

Gun shots every night in the (ghetto)
Crooked cops on sight in the (ghetto)
Every day is a fight in the (ghetto)
(oh oh oh oh oh) (ghetto)
Got kids to feed in the (ghetto)
Selling coke and weed in the (ghetto)
Every day somebody bleed in the (ghetto)
(oh oh oh oh oh) (ghetto)

[Chorus]

Thats the life when your
Living in the (ghetto)oh
Living by the (ghetto)oh
Eating in the (ghetto, ghetto)
Thats the life when your
Living in the (ghetto)oh
Sleeping in the (ghetto)
Living in the (ghetto, ghetto, ghetto)

(wooohhoohh)

Akon

AKON LYRICS

"Ghetto"

Ghetto, Ghetto, Ghetto, Ghetto livin

[Verse one]

These streets remind me of quicksand (quicksand)
When your on it you'll keep goin down (goin down)
And there's noone to hold on too
And there's noone to pull you out
You keep on fallin (falling)
And noone can here you callin
So you end up self destructing
On the corner with the tuli on the waist line just got outta the bing doin state time
Teeth marks on my back from the canine
Dark Memories of when there was no sunshine
Cause they said that I wouldn't make it
(I remember like yesterday)
Holdin on to what god gave me

[Chorus]

Cause thats the life when ur
Living in the (ghetto)and
Eating in the (ghetto)or
Sleeping in the (ghetto) (ghetto)
Cause thats the life when ur
Living in the (ghetto)and
Eating in the (ghetto)or
Sleeping in the (ghetto, ghetto, ghetto)

[Verse two]

No need to cherish luxuries (cause everythin' come and go)
Even the life that you have is borrowed
(Cause your not promised tomorrow)
So live your life as if everydays' gon be your last
Once you move forward can't go back
Best prepare to remove your past

Cause ya gotta be willin to pray
Yea There gotta be (there gotta be) a better way oh
Yea ya gotta be willing to pray
Cause there gotta be (there gotta be) a better day (ay)

Whoever said that this struggle would stop today
A lot of niggas dead or locked away
Teenage Women growing up with aids

[Chorus]

Cause thats the life when your
Living in the (ghetto) oh
Eating in the (ghetto) or
Sleeping in the (ghetto, ghetto)
Thats the life when ur
Living in the (ghetto)oh
Eating in the (ghetto) or
Sleeping in the (ghetto, ghetto, ghetto)

[Bridge]

Gun shots every night in the (ghetto)
Crooked cops on sight in the (ghetto)
Every day is a fight in the (ghetto)
(oh oh oh oh oh) (ghetto)
Got kids to feed in the (ghetto)
Selling coke and weed in the (ghetto)
Every day somebody bleed in the (ghetto)
(oh oh oh oh oh) (ghetto)

[Chorus]

Thats the life when your
Living in the (ghetto)oh
Living by the (ghetto)oh
Eating in the (ghetto, ghetto)
Thats the life when your
Living in the (ghetto)oh
Sleeping in the (ghetto)
Living in the (ghetto, ghetto, ghetto)

if you want peace work for justice as MARTIN LUTTER KING

In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was far from a reality. People of color — blacks, Hispanics, Asians — were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America, when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v. Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham, Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.

Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King organized a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The following is the exact text of the spoken speech, transcribed from recordings.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.


Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

the history of Rwandan genocide

The Rwandan Genocide was the systematic murder of members of Rwanda's Tutsi minority and the moderates of its Hutu majority, in 1994. This was both the bloodiest period of the Rwandan Civil War and the worst genocide of the 1990s. With the preliminary implementation of the Arusha Accords, the Tutsi rebels and Hutu regime were able to agree to a cease-fire, and further negotiations were underway. The diplomatic efforts to end the conflict were at first thought to be successful, yet even with the MRND and RPF (political wing of the RPA) in talks, certain Hutu factions, like the CDR, were against any agreement for cooperation between the regime, and the rebels, to end Rwanda's ethnic and economic troubles and progress towards a stable nationhood. The genocide was primarily the action of two extremist Hutu militias, the Interahamwe (military wing of the MRND) and the Impuzamugambi (military wing of the CDR), against dissenters to their Hutu extremism. Over the course of about 100 days, from April 6 to mid-July, at least 500,000 Tutsis and thousands of Hutus were killed during the genocide.[1] Some estimates put the death toll around the 800,000 and 1,000,000 marks.[2]

With the genocide, and the resurgence in the civil war, Rwanda's conflict was thought by the United Nations to be too difficult and volatile for it to handle. Eventually, the Tutsi rebels successfully brought the country under their control and overthrew the Hutu regime. Hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees fled across the borders, mainly west to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The presence of the extreme Hutu factions on the border with Rwanda was the cause for the First and Second Congo Wars, with clashes between these groups and the RPF's RPA, now part of a coalition force, even until today.[1] Rivalry between the Hutus and Tutsis is also central to the Burundian Civil War.

The UN's neglect of the Rwandan Genocide, under comprehensive media coverage, drew severe criticism. France, Belgium, and the United States in particular, received negative attention for their complacency towards the extreme Hutu regime's oppressions. Canada, Ghana, and the Netherlands, did continue to provide a force on the ground, under the command of Roméo Dallaire of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), but this mission had little actual power without support from the UN Security Council. Despite specific demands from UNAMIR's commanders in Rwanda, before and throughout the genocide, its requests for authorization to intervene were refused, and its capacity was even reduced.

Rwanda a country victim of a genocie

rwadan a country of thousand hills and exceptianal beauty faced a genocide

Even the queen Diana died early do not fear to die

That's the way we do things in this country, quietly, with dignity.”- Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II
The death of Princess Diana is one of the most memorable tragedies in recent history. The Queen explores the private story behind the royal family's lack of public appearance after her death. The film takes the subtle approach of exploring the Diana story from the viewpoint of the royal family unlike any other film based on tragic events in history. The Queen is historical storytelling at its best. Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II delivers an uncannily realistic portrayal and provides one of the greatest performances of 2006.

At the time of Diana's death she had been divorced from Prince Charles (played by Alex Jennings) and was not popularly associated with the royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (James Cromwell) were not very fond of Diana and her celebrity status, as the royal family is typically very private. The Queen touches briefly on Diana's background and includes a vignette about Tony Blair's (Michael Sheen) election as Prime Minister and his first nervous encounter with the queen. When news of Diana's death arrived, the entire royal family was in residence at Balmoral Castle, a rather secluded residence of the royal family. The consensus held by the queen and her family is that Diana's death is a private affair, and therefore they spend most of the remaining days in privacy on the castle grounds as the world grieves. Although The Queen does tell quite a bit of Tony Blair's story, the focus is primarily on the personal emotions and actions (or lack thereof) of Elizabeth II and the royal family members close to her.



The reason why The Queen deserves such a high rating is the fact that I went in not expecting much and came out greatly surprised. I credit the film's story, editing and, above all, Helen Mirren's performance. It's her undoubtedly genuine acting that makes The Queen as fantastic and enjoyable as it is. Michael Sheen as Tony Blair also delivers a "revolutionary" character that has some great comedic moments. It is Blair who eventually persuades Elizabeth II to finally come out and give her speech to the public. Sheen had to be in a very convincing role and he fulfilled it perfectly. These two truly lead the way in creating the experience that The Queen is and making it into something that it would not have been without them.

The Queen is a rare film questioning the reactions of the British Royal Family that has reached American cinemas. In the end, I felt quite a bit of remorse while still harboring plenty of respect for Elizabeth II. Although the movie is heavy-hearted with sadness for the deceased Princess Diana, it is still a rather lightly-flowing story relying much on Elizabeth II's personality. The film emphasizes the queen's speech as the climactic breakthrough moment, a decision with which I emphatically agree. Her emotions at that point were fascinating. Right before the speech while Elizabeth II is putting on her necklace and looking at herself in the mirror, it is her facial expression alone that exudes so much emotion. This personal story of both Queen Elizabeth II and Tony Blair is an exquisite outlook on the Princess Diana tragedy and is fit into an enjoyable and emotional film.

Last Word:
The Queen has surpassed my expectations by leaps and bounds. It brings together great performances and an amazing story into what is not only enjoyable but also respectful. This movie will touch the hearts of all those who felt moved by the events following Princess Diana's death in 1997. It opened my eyes to a great story told in a compelling manner by an accomplished filmmaker. The Queen is one of the most passionate biographic films that I have ever seen and Helen Mirren delivers a certainly Oscar-worthy performance.

untold story

This is a story of a young girl from a rich family who fallen in love with me without taking into consideration anything.Our story begins when i was in 5th year secondary school, at this time the girl was in senior four and she loved me unfortunately she didin't told me any thing abouut it.I finished the secondary school and i was registered to the university and one day while i was crossing in kigali i met her at kicukiro and she greeted me , the second time we met at remera near by prince house and she proposed me to go with her at her home and i accepted.from that time we entered in serious relationship but because i consired her not being in the same social class with me I feared to be her lover and the time arrived when she left rwanda to Canada where she lives now. I will not regret why i was not asked her to be my lover because i am still cinviced of the inequality that is between us. All i may wish her is the best life and i will forever think and thank her for the true love that she showed to me. MAY GOD BLESS HER, HER LOVE AND HIS LOVER.

ghandi the hero

Mahatma Gandhi (First of 5 pages)


Copyright: Vithalbhai Jhaveri/ GandhiServe
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in the town of Porbander in the state of what is now Gujarat on 2 October 1869. He had his schooling in nearby Rajkot, where his father served as the adviser or prime minister to the local ruler. Though India was then under British rule, over 500 kingdoms, principalities, and states were allowed autonomy in domestic and internal affairs: these were the so-called 'native states'. Rajkot was one such state.

Gandhi later recorded the early years of his life in his extraordinary autobiography, The Story of My Experimentswith Truth. His father died before Gandhi could finish his schooling, and at thirteen he was married to Kasturba [or Kasturbai], who was even younger. In 1888 Gandhi set sail for England, where he had decided to pursue a degree in law. Though his elders objected, Gandhi could not be prevented from leaving; and it is said that his mother, a devout woman, made him promise that he would keep away from wine, women, and meat during his stay abroad. Gandhi left behind his son Harilal, then a few months old.

In London, Gandhi encountered theosophists, vegetarians, and others who were disenchanted not only with industrialism, but with the legacy of Enlightenment thought. They themselves represented the fringe elements of English society. Gandhi was powerfully attracted to them, as he was to the texts of the major religious traditions; and ironically it is in London that he was introduced to the Bhagavad Gita. Here, too, Gandhi showed determination and single-minded pursuit of his purpose, and accomplished his objective of finishing his degree from the Inner Temple. He was called to the bar in 1891, and even enrolled in the High Court of London; but later that year he left for India.

Gandhi (next page)

byamukama Alcade allias richard

page: Select Article Afro-American Lit. Notes on Novels Wikipedia Best of Web Citations --------------- Or search: - The Web - Images - News - Blogs - Shopping



African American Literature: Black Boy
Richard Wright's 1945 autobiography Black Boy covers his life from four years of age to the moment of his departure from the South (Memphis, Tennessee, where he had earlier migrated from Mississippi) to the North (Chicago) at nineteen. Its subject and title place it in the tradition of African American autobiography, beginning with the nineteenth-century slave narrative, a genre in which the autobiographer describes the particularities of his own life in order to speak of the situation and condition of the race in general. While presenting the details of one life, Black Boy is intended to reveal the horrors, cruelties, and privations undergone by the masses of African Americans living in the South (and in the United States as a whole) during the first decades of the twentieth century.

Originally Wright's Black Boy was the first section of a much longer work titled American Hunger and divided into two parts: “Southern Night”, detailing Wright's early life in the South, and “The Horror and the Glory”, treating his life in Chicago and describing racism northern style. After Harper & Brothers received the manuscript from Wright, they submitted it to the Book-of-the-Month Club for consideration as a monthly selection. The club agreed to accept it on condition that its first section alone, later titled by Wright Black Boy, be published. The complete text of the second section of American Hunger was first published in 1977 by Harper & Row. The entire work, composed of both sections, as Wright originally wrote it, was published for the first time in 1992 by the Library of America.

One of the primary themes of Wright's autobiographical narrative involves the influence of racism on the personal interrelations not only among the individuals of the oppressed group but within the family itself. The first episode of the narrative, in which Wright at four years of age innocently burns down the family home, has no racial implications per se, but the response of his mother does. As punishment Wright is so severely beaten with a tree limb that he lapses into semi-consciousness and requires the attention of a physician. The mother's response is in direct correlation to the family's economic circumstance. They are poor because they are black, and the harshness of his punishment reflects the degree of the family's economic loss. On another occasion, when Wright is badly cut behind the ear by a broken bottle in a fight between black and white boys, his mother, instead of extending the comfort and sympathy ordinarily expected of a parent toward a wounded child, beats him to warn him of the dangers of fighting whites.

Black Boy's historical significance lies in its recapitulation of the thrust of black autobiography in its use of the form as a means of righting social wrong. Other African American writers have used literature to perform this function, but none before Wright had been as outspoken. In episode after episode Wright describes through his own experience of racial repression that was undergone by millions of his brothers and sisters. At the same time, he relates the story of his own growth.

Bibliography

Michel Fabre, The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright, 1973
Donald B. Gibson

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Notes on Novels: Black Boy
Contents:

Author Biography
Plot Summary
Characters
Themes
Style
Historical Context
Critical Overview
Criticism
Sources
For Further Study




Richard Wright made a masterful recording of his own life in the form of the novel Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth. The work earned him a place as "father" of the post-WWII black novel and precursor of the Black Arts movements of the 1960s. Published in 1945 as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, Black Boy was received enthusiastically by the reading public and topped the best-seller lists, with 400,000 copies sold. The commercial success of this novel secured for Wright what his acclaimed novel of 1940, Native Son, had demanded. With these two works, Richard Wright is correctly said to be one of the most powerful forces in twentieth-century American literature. Without doubt, he is the most powerful influence on modern African American writing due to his impact on James Baldwin (Another Country, 1962), and Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man, 1953).

Black Boy is an autobiographical work in which Wright adapted formative episodes from his own life into a "coming of age" plot. In the novel, Richard is a boy in the Jim Crow American South. This was a system of racial segregation practiced in some states of the U.S., which treated blacks as second-class citizens. In his novel, Wright emphasizes two environmental forces of this system: hunger and language. He shows how hunger drives the already oppressed to even more desperate acts, and his emphasis on language explains how he managed to survive Jim Crow: by developing an attention to language as a coping mechanism for the surface world of life. Meanwhile, literature offered him internal release from the tensions of living without the freedom to express his dignity as a human being. Thus, Wright's novel is a powerful story of the individual struggle for the freedom of expression.

Rwanda is committed to the radication of any kind of genocide

As the sun set over this desert camp, Pvt. Lambert Sendegeya, an African Union soldier from Rwanda, popped in a tape of music from his country and launched into a series of leg bends. Lt. Eugene Ruzianda peered from his canvas tent and, removing his green beret, joined the evening exercises.

As they stretched, they lamented their daunting task: protecting 80 African Union military observers who are charged with monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur, an area about the size of France.

A Rwandan officer and his troops prepared last month to leave for Darfur, where they now make up part of an African Unity force. (Finbarr O'reilly -- Reuters)

_____Crisis in Sudan_____
• Washington Post foreign correspondent Emily Wax has reported on the dire situation facing the people of Darfur in western Sudan.
• Sudan's Ragtag Rebels (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
• Wells of Life Run Dry for Sudanese (The Washington Post, Aug 22, 2004)
• Targeting the Teachers of Darfur (The Washington Post, Aug 18, 2004)
• In Sudan, 'a Big Sheik' Roams Free (The Washington Post, Jul 18, 2004)
• Refugees Moved Before Annan Visit (The Washington Post, Jul 2, 2004)
• 'We Want to Make a Light Baby' (The Washington Post, Jun 30, 2004)
• In Sudan, Death and Denial (The Washington Post, Jun 27, 2004)
• Chad Broken by Strain of Suffering (The Washington Post, Mar 11, 2004)
• Bittersweet Homecomings in War-Weary Sudan (The Washington Post, Jan 5, 2004)
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They rattled off the reports of violence they had heard and the instances in which victims had handed them handwritten notes about fighting and rapes. But neither the monitors nor the protection forces have enough vehicles or manpower to investigate, the soldiers said.

"Every night you go to sleep thinking, 'I could do more. We could do more with a better mandate,' " said Ruzianda, also a Rwandan, whose family fled to Congo during a civil war in his country in the 1990s. "I hate it, to see people living like this. There are some things that remind me of our country when people were fleeing. It can be a shock to see it all again. This time, the only comfort is that at least we are here. At least there is something."

These men are part of the generation that survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 100 days of violence in which 800,000 people were slaughtered. The Organization of African Unity, since replaced by the African Union, stood by silently while the carnage unfolded. The United Nations, which had a small force on the ground during the bloodshed, also did not intervene.

Now 155 Rwandans, part of a 305-member African Union force, are being asked to demonstrate that Africans can stop African wars. The United Nations, backed by the United States and the European Union, called for the group's involvement in Darfur, its first serious test.

Burned villages smolder across the region. About 1.4 million Africans who were driven from their farms now live in squalid tent cities that continue to swell. Thousands of people have died in the crisis, which the United States has termed a genocide.

The violence erupted in February 2003, when African tribes rebelled against the Arab-led government. The government responded by bombing villages and arming and supporting an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. The government has said the Janjaweed is not under its control.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution this month that threatens sanctions against Sudan unless it stops the violence and establishes a commission to investigate atrocities. The council has also threatened to send 3,000 more African Union troops to Darfur if security does not improve.

The monitors and their protectors are key to ending the conflict. Their job is to track violations of the cease-fire by the government and by the African rebels and report them to the union's political wing, which is conducting peace talks between the two sides in Nigeria.

Aid groups say the force's mandate is vague and are pressing for more explicit orders that would allow the soldiers to use force to stop the attacks on civilians.

Sudan's government has said it would reject any role for the force beyond monitoring. In Khartoum, government-owned newspapers are filled with fiery editorials accusing the troops, who represent 12 countries, of bringing HIV/AIDS to Sudan. Other stories have likened the mission to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

But Sudan's government may not have a choice. Attacks are continuing in villages and around camps, which refugees describe as "prisons without walls," said Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, who recently visited the region.

"People cannot return home because they do not trust the government to protect them," Arbour said. "It's clear they need an increased international presence on the ground."

WHY WARS

The Progressive" -- - - I suggest there is something important to be learned from the recent experience of the United States and Israel in the Middle East: that massive military attacks are not only morally reprehensible but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out.

In the three years of the Iraq War, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, the United States has failed utterly in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq. American soldiers and civilians, fearful of going into the neighborhoods of Baghdad, are huddled inside the Green Zone, where the largest embassy in the world is being built, covering 104 acres and closed off from the world outside its walls.

I remember John Hersey's novel The War Lover, in which a macho American pilot, who loves to drop bombs on people, and also to boast about his sexual conquests, turns out to be impotent. George Bush, strutting in his flight jacket on an aircraft carrier, and announcing victory in Iraq, has turned out to be an embodiment of the Hersey character, his words equally boastful, his military machine equally impotent.

The Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon has not brought security to Israel. Indeed, it has increased the number of its enemies, whether in Hezbollah or Hamas, or among Arabs who belong to neither of those groups.

That failure of massive force goes so deep into history that Israeli leaders must have been extraordinarily obtuse, or blindly fanatic, to miss it. The memory is not lost to Professor Ze'ev Maoz at Tel Aviv University, writing recently in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz about a previous Israeli invasion of Lebanon: "Approximately 14,000 civilians were killed between June and September of 1982, according to a conservative estimate." The result, aside from the physical and human devastation, was the rise of Hezbollah, whose rockets provoked another desperate exercise of massive force.

The history of wars fought since the end of World War II reveals the futility of large-scale violence. The United States and the Soviet Union, despite their enormous firepower, were unable to defeat resistance movements in small, weak nations. Even though the United States dropped more bombs in the Vietnam War than in all of World War II, it was still forced to withdraw. The Soviet Union, trying for a decade to conquer Afghanistan, in a war that caused a million deaths, became bogged down and also finally withdrew.

Even the supposed triumphs of great military powers turn out to be elusive. After attacking and invading Afghanistan, President Bush boasted that the Taliban were defeated. But five years later, Afghanistan is rife with violence, and the Taliban are active in much of the country. Last May, there were riots in Kabul, after a runaway American military truck killed five Afghans. When U.S. soldiers fired into the crowd, four more people were killed.

After the brief, apparently victorious war against Iraq in 1991, George Bush Sr. declared (in a moment of rare eloquence): "The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian peninsula." Those sands are bloody once more.

The same George Bush presided over the military attack on Panama in 1989, which killed thousands and destroyed entire neighborhoods, justified by the "war on drugs." Another victory, but in a few years, the drug trade in Panama was thriving as before.

The nations of Eastern Europe, despite Soviet occupation, developed resistance movements that eventually compelled the Soviet military to leave. The United States, which had its way in Latin America for a hundred years, has been unable, despite a long history of military interventions, to control events in Cuba, or Venezuela, or Brazil, or Bolivia.

Overwhelming Israeli military power, while occupying the West Bank and Gaza, has not been able to stop the resistance movement of Palestinians. Israel has not made itself more secure by its continued use of massive force. The United States, despite two successive wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not more secure.

More important than the futility of armed force, and ultimately more important, is the fact that war in our time always results in the indiscriminate killing of large numbers of people. To put it more bluntly, war is terrorism. That is why a "war on terrorism" is a contradiction in terms.

The repeated excuse for war, and its toll on civilians-and this has been uttered by Pentagon spokespersons as well as by Israeli officials-is that terrorists hide among civilians. Therefore the killing of innocent people (in Iraq, in Lebanon) is "accidental" whereas the deaths caused by terrorists (9/11, Hezbollah rockets) are deliberate.

This is a false distinction. If a bomb is deliberately dropped on a house or a vehicle on the ground that a "suspected terrorist" is inside (note the frequent use of the word "suspected" as evidence of the uncertainty surrounding targets), it is argued that the resulting deaths of women and children is not intended, therefore "accidental." The deaths of innocent people in bombing may not be intentional. Neither are they accidental. The proper description is "inevitable."

So if an action will inevitably kill innocent people, it is as immoral as a "deliberate" attack on civilians. And when you consider that the number of people dying inevitably in "accidental" events has been far greater than all the deaths of innocent people deliberately caused by terrorists, one must reconsider the morality of war, any war in our time.

It is a supreme irony that the "war on terrorism" has brought a higher death toll among innocent civilians than the hijackings of 9/11, which killed up to 3,000 people. The United States reacted to 9/11 by invading and bombing Afghanistan. In that operation, at least 3,000 civilians were killed, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes and villages, terrorized by what was supposed to be a war on terror. Bush's Iraq War, which he keeps linking to the "war on terror," has killed between 40,000 and 140,000 civilians.

More than a million civilians in Vietnam were killed by U.S. bombs, presumably by "accident." Add up all the terrorist attacks throughout the world in the twentieth century and they do not equal that awful toll.

If reacting to terrorist attacks by war is inevitably immoral, then we must look for ways other than war to end terrorism.

And if military retaliation for terrorism is not only immoral but futile, then political leaders, however cold-blooded their calculations, must reconsider their policies. When such practical considerations are joined to a rising popular revulsion against war, perhaps the long era of mass murder may be brought to an end.

ARSENAL FIRST TEAM

MARTIN LUTTER KING

Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968)

Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King ©
King was an American clergymen, Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the principal leaders of the American civil rights movements.

King was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister, his mother a schoolteacher. Originally named Michael, he was later renamed Martin. He entered Morehouse College in 1944 and then went to Crozer Religious Seminary to undertake postgraduate study, receiving his doctorate in 1955.

Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man - in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus. The 382-day boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and the supreme court declared such segregation unconstitutional.

In 1957 King was active in the organisation of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to co-ordinate protests against discrimination. He advocated non-violent direct action based on the methods of Gandhi, who led protests against British rule in India culminating in India's independence in 1947.

In 1963, King led mass protests against discriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabama where the white population were violently resisting desegregation. The city was dubbed 'Bombingham' as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests.

After his release, King participated in the enormous civil rights march on Washington in August 1963, and delivered his famous 'I have a dream' speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1965, he led a campaign to register blacks to vote. The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discriminatory practices that had barred blacks from voting in the south.

As the civil rights movement became increasingly radicalised, King found that his message of peaceful protest was not shared by many in the younger generation. King began to protest against the Vietnam war and poverty levels in the US. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968 during a visit to Memphis, Tennessee.

WHAT ABOUT VIOLENCE

THE CONCEPT VIOLENCE

Everywhere we encounter „violence“. It seems to be a universal process which threatens the very destiny of mankind. Everybody is talking about „violence“ and „peace“, as if the two form a unity and contradiction of opposites. But, very few people seem to know what this concept precisely connotes. In fact, there are just about as many definitions of „violence“ as there are persons experiencing violence daily.



In various discussions we condemn „political violence“, „social violence”, „state violence“, „class violence“, etc. However, what is violence in essence? Is it really the opposite of „peace“, and what is „peace“?

TROTSKY AND VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

On April 30, 1933, Leon Trotsky, one of the most famous leaders of the historic October Revolution, wrote a letter to the „Workers’ Party of South Africa“ (WPSA), concerning „The National and Agrarian Struggles in South Africa“. 1) While discussing the „national question“ and the possibility of the „Blacks“, establishing a „separate State“ after a victorious political revolution, he emphatically stressed: „ … let them make this admission freely, on the basis of their own experience, and not forced by the sjambok (whip) of the White oppressors“. 2) It is of great interest what Trotsky had contrasted here, the sjambok of the White oppressors, and, admission freely, on the basis of experience, práxis-theory. Trotsky, being a revolutionary scientific socialist, and having experienced Stalin's political terror and violence, knows very well that in South Africa, in the historic process of the class struggle, an inexorable dialectical battle was taking place between the forces of „violence“ and those of „freedom“. This was the unity and contradiction of opposites, the motor of history, and today this confrontation continues with greater „force“ and velocity.



Now, what is the praxical-theoretical background of the above contention? Firstly, we have to understand the philosophic basis on which Trotsky made his scientific analysis, his approach and method. Without these, it is impossible to grasp such a concept as „violence“ in its processual manifestations.



According to Scientific Socialism or Marxism, and, for our purposes, the two are synonymous, the concrete philosophical basis of dialectical materialism (incidentally, a concept which Marx never used in his works) is eternal, living matter. Like the concept „mode of production“, the term „matter“ is an abstract-logical universal category. Because matter permanently changes, as expressed in its various forms and content, essence and appearance, probabilities, potentialities, latencies and tendencies, etc., 3) because it is in eternal flux, it is impossible for the human mind, for thinking and theory, to grasp its true reality. Hence, in discussing a concept like „violence“, which is part of the process of the evolution of matter, we can only hope to approximate with increasing precision the essence and reality of this phenomenon. What it was a million years ago, what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow, all are different, and even the subject analysing „violence“ permanently changes.



The method of dialectical materialism is the dialectical method, based on the science of movement, of evolution, of change, dialectics. 4) Concerning the elusiveness and immutability of matter, of reality, Goethe remarked: „Theory, my friends, is gray, but green is the eternal tree of life.“ Thus, materialist dialectics is the logic of motion, of universal change manifesting itself on the levels of nature, history and human thought. 5) On December 15, 1939, Trotsky, criticizing Burnham and Shachtman, pointed out: „dialectical thinking gives to concepts, by means of closer approximations, corrections, concretizations, a richness of content and flexibility; I would even say a succulence which to a certain extent brings them close to living phenomena. ... We call our dialectic, materialist, since its roots are neither in heaven nor in the depths of our ‘free will’ , but in objective reality, in nature.“ 6) And, some of the laws of the dialectics, discovered by Hegel, and applied to materialism by Marx and Engels, he enumerated as follows: „Hegel in his logic established a series of laws: change of quantity into quality, development through contradictions, conflict of content and form, interruption of continuity (discontinuity), change of possibility into inevitability, etc., which are just as important for theoretical thought as in the simple syllogism for more elementary tasks.“ 7)



Like any other science, which studies a particular kind of motion, dialectics has its laws and categories, and, even they are not absolute or eternal. Among these categories are those who will interest us specifically: essence-appearance, absolute-relative, abstract-concrete, form-content, theory-praxis. They express the dialectical compound of the contradiction and unity of opposites, which we find in every object, subject, phenomenon or process.


DIALECTICS AND VIOLENCE

Now, let us look at the features of the dialectical method, which Engels had described in Ludwig Feuerbach as „our best working tool and our sharpest weapon“. In this respect, we have also to look very closely at the oscillation between thought and reality, the abstract and the concrete, essence and appearance, theory and praxis. Ernest Mandel, in his major work, Late Capitalism, gave an excellent synthesis of the dialectical method used by Marx and Trotsky. 8) Violence as a phenomenon has a cause (or causes) and an effect (or effects), it has an essence and various appearances, it has specific contents and can appear in various forms in history and in social life.



Man has developed science, precisely because appearance and essence are never identical. Marx, in Capital, stated: „All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided.“ 9) Violence as it appears on the signs „Whites Only“, as the demarcation SOWETO, is not necessarily identical with the essence of violence of the apartheid system. Violence, like everything else, in essence has a historical and material character. It enters the world, history, under specific material conditions, it develops into and through various forms, and, in a Hegelian dialectical sense, eventually „meets its doom“. What is more significant, a thing never comes-into-being alone, it always is born with its opposite. The unity and contradiction of these two phenomena is the material for scientific investigation. Worse even, everything has in its own essence already the unity and contradiction of opposites. Novack wrote: „The essence of a thing never comes into existence by itself and as itself alone. It always manifests itself along with and by means of its own opposite. This opposite is what we designate by the logical term appearance.“ 10) Hence, the essence of violence is what is necessary for its appearance in the world, in history, in South Africa, in the „African imagination“. It is the totality of qualities without which violence cannot be born, and, if they disappear, violence necessarily and „rationally“ will perish. And when a thing changes its essence, it changes essentially.



Logically, it is necessary to attempt to comprehend how violence had historically, as essence, entered African reality, and how its appearance forms throughout history had been reflected in the African „imagination“, in African philosophy. Such a work would however dialectically surpass the formal limits of this brief essay. Hence, I will just sketch the essential points of relevance.



Trotsky, as revolutionary Marxist, in various works, in which he had analysed manifold social phenomena, especially the October Revolution, had always pointed out that in the development, the process of a thing, at the beginning its essence is almost wholly submerged in a particular appearance. Generally, people, using Aristotle’s formal logic, the mother who had died when the child Dialectics was born, tend to identify forever the two as an indivisible whole. Gradually a thing „sloughs off“ its original form, in a sense of how Anaximander had explained the development of the apeiron, and assumes new appearance forms. In the case of South Africa, Trotsky in his „Letter“ very carefully distinguished between „appearance“ of South Africa to the world, and to the „Whites“, as „Dominion“, and, its „essence“, a „slave colony“, as the „Blacks“ daily experienced it in 1933.



In the course of development, in its material movement, the essence and appearance of a thing, a phenomenon, for example, violence, commingle at the peak, in the South African case, in the apartheid system at the end of the 20th century, and then gradually Hegel’s „doom“ sets in. Currently, apartheid having unfolded historically its content of social discrimination, political oppression, economic exploitation and human degradation, slowly is moving toward something else, under the pressure of the forces of emancipation, its negation, that is, its essence is fading away. Similarly, violence in South Africa, which is an intrinsic part of this process, more and more is losing its essence, and permanently changes its appearance forms. Eventually, apartheid and violence will become less essential and finally nonessential.




VIOLENCE AND REVOLUTION


How the above would be accomplished historically, Trotsky explained very clearly in his „Letter“: „A victorious revolution is unthinkable without the awakening of the Native masses; in its turn it will give them what they are so lacking today, confidence in their strength, a heightened personal consciousness, a cultural growth.“ 11)



Although Trotsky, like Marx, Engels and Lenin, appropriated great significance to revolutionary theory within the realm of political praxis - “without revolutionary theory, no social revolution“ (Lenin) - nonetheless, we have no „treatise“ on Marxist political theory, no „cook-book“ for the dialectics, no „recipe“ of how to make social revolution, and no „constitution“ which fixes the laws of motion of matter. Trotsky knew that the South African revolutionaries had to begin with the concrete realities of their daily lives and in the scientific investigation and analysis of these conditions had to move to the abstract, to a heightened political consciousness, to a „confidence in their strength“. And, by applying this „revolutionary theory“, gained from this practical revolutionary experience, again to the changing reality of South Africa, the emancipatory struggle will be elevated to a higher dialectical plane, ready to be analysed again in a concrete-abstract fashion. The above indicates how the categories „concrete-abstract“ and „theory-praxis“ are applied in a social revolutionary process. Earlier we had demonstrated how revolutionaries have to differentiate between „appearance“ and „essence“, and how these dialectical categories go hand-in-hand.



Concerning the above, Mandel remarked: „To reduce Marx’s method to a ‘progression of the abstract to the concrete’, however, is to ignore its full richness. In the first place, this misunderstanding overlooks the fact that, for Marx, the concrete was both the ‘real starting point’ and the final goal of knowledge, which he saw as an active and practical process; the ‘reproduction of the concrete in the course of thought’. Secondly it forgets that a progression from the abstract to the concrete is necessarily preceded, as Lenin put it, by a progression from the concrete to the abstract. For the abstract itself is already the result of a previous work of analysis, which has sought to separate the concrete into ‘its determinant relations’” 12)



The above is an excellent example of how the dialectical categories „cause-effect“ and „analysis-synthesis“ operate. Obviously the analysis of violence in South Africa by the masses and its revolutionary vanguard, as „abstract“ result, as „theory“, will only be true if it will be successful in reproducing the „unity of the diverse elements present in the concrete“, the police terror, personal harassment, torture, murder, genocide by social order. It is well-known that the master dialectician, Hegel, considered that only „the whole is true“. And, in our case, the „whole“ is the unity of the concrete and the abstract, that is the unity of opposites, which contradict each other. In the South African context, concerning our topic, the „whole“ is the unity of apartheid violence and African emancipation, and, the contradiction of the two.



Applying the abstract again to the concrete is theory-praxis, another important category of the dialectics, quintessential for social revolution. Mandel continues: „Fourthly, the successful reproduction of the concrete totality only becomes conclusive by application in practice. This means, among other things, that - as Lenin expressly emphasized - each stage of the analysis must be subject to ‘control either by facts, or by practice ‘”. 13)



The experience of violence by the South African masses daily is a concrete manifestation, they feel violence because it is a concentration of many determinations of apartheid society, the unity of the diverse elements which make up their human tragedy. Trotsky tried to contribute in an abstract-concrete manner to enable them to be “liberated from slavish dependence“. 14) And, although he gave examples from his own revolutionary experience, especially of the October Revolution, yet he did not consider that the African masses should „reproduce“ the Russian experience at the „Cape of Storms“. He stressed that he was „too insufficiently acquainted with the conditions in South Africa“, and that the Black masses should make admissions „freely, on the basis of their own experience“.



It is precisely in the field of „experience“, of daily political práxis, where the concrete workers of South Africa learn the dialectics, the laws and categories of the logic of motion. It is when their „heightened personal consciousness“ (Trotsky) becomes social consciousness, when their abstract reflections approximate concrete reality, only then, they can find their way through the labyrinth of South African apartheid ideology, falsifications, rationalizations and lies. It is when they begin to grasp concrete totality, Hegel’s „whole“, only then, they are approaching Truth, and nothing is more magnetic than Truth to an oppressed creature searching for emancipation, and not Messianic salvation.



Although Trotsky is using the category „race“, in a sense that it was used in his epoch, nevertheless his views were scientific and not „racist“, he did not „exclude, of course either full equality for Whites or brotherly relations between the two races“. 15) But, he was utterly against the „devil of chauvinism“ (Trotsky) and stressed revolutionary principles in the South African struggle: “... the worst crime on the part of the revolutionaries would be to give the smallest concessions to the privileges and prejudices of the Whites. Whoever gives his little finger to the devil of chauvinism is lost.“ 16) The point is: these „privileges and prejudices“ have to be abolished, and not be interpreted in different ways. As I have already pointed out in 1982 in “Political Science in Africa”, in South Africa, „our aim can only be a dialectical unity of scientific práxis and philosophic theory. Anything else will land on the garbage heap of history.“ 17)

MARXISM AND VIOLENCE

Now, let us look more closer at the Marxist conception of „violence“, especially from Trotsky's cosmovision. In commemoration of all the brave sons and daughters who had fallen in the South African struggle across the last 400 years, it is pertinent here to relate Trotsky's own personal experience of political violence, the murder of his beloved son, Leon Sedov. Leon Sedov, son of Natalia Sedova and Trotsky, was murdered in a Paris hospital by agents of Stalin's GPU. In Mexico, two years before he himself would be murdered by Stalin's secret international police, on February 20, 1938, Trotsky wrote the article: Leon Sedov - Son, Friend, Fighter. We will quote extensively to demonstrate a great revolutionary's grieve and love in the face of international violence.



„As I write these lines, with Leon Hesiod’s mother by my side, telegrams of condolence keep coming from different countries. And for us each telegram evokes the same appalling question: ‘Can it really be that our friends in France, Holland, England, the United States, Canada, South Africa, and here in Mexico accept it as definitely established that Sedov is no more?’ Each telegram in a new token of his death, but we are unable to believe it as yet. And this, not only because he was our son, truthful, devoted, loving, but above all because he had, as no one else on earth, become part of our life, entwined in all its roots, our co-thinker, our co-worker, our guard, our counsellor, our friend. .... Leon was a thoroughly clean, honest, pure human being. He could before any working-class gathering tell the story of his life - alas, so brief - day by day, as I have briefly told it here. He had nothing to be ashamed of or to hide. Moral nobility was the basic warp of his character. ... Together with our boy has died everything that still remained young within us. ... Goodbye, Leon! We bequeath your irreproachable memory to the younger generation of the workers of the world. You will rightly live in the hearts of all those who work, suffer, and struggle for a better world. Revolutionary youth of all countries! Accept from us the memory of our Leon, adopt him as your son ....“ 18)



Alas, the revolutionary youth of South Africa know today, half a century later, very little about Trotsky, about his thoughts and his work, and practically nothing about his son, their adopted brother. Violently South Africa, by means of „Suppression of Communism“ and „Terrorism“ Acts, had waged a life-and-death struggle against Marxism. But, also the Communist Party of South Africa, which had followed all the zig-zag manoeuvres of Stalin's foreign policy, and the Soviet Union itself until today, had done everything possible to blot out the very memory of Leon Trotsky and Leon Sedov. However, the Truth is the Whole, and one cannot negate one’s contradiction, without negating one’s self. Historically, as the 20th century is drawing towards a close, both Leons as revolutionary heritage of all „wretched of the earth“ are gradually penetrating even the virgin land of the African „imagination“. And all the defamations of etiquetting real revolutionaries as „Trotskyites“ or „Trotskyists“ would not stop this world process - if the true „Marxist-Leninists“ had studied their history thoroughly, by using the dialectical method, they would have known that even Lenin was a „Trotskyite“ after 1917, and that Lenin was the first one to criticize himself in the face of the eternal laws of motion of matter of everchanging history. It is not the committing of scientific errors which is the problem, it is their elevation to ossified dogma, by using the Aristotelian forms of logic, which has severely harmed emancipatory progress.

VIOLENCE AND THE FUTURE OF MANKIND

For mankind, the problem of abolishing and surpassing „violence“ began in its „cradle“, in Africa. However, before tracing the history of „violence” until South Africa of the 20th century, let us examine two important dialectical categories, „relative-absolute“ and „affirmation-negation“, which are immensely relevant in elucidating this historic process. In objective reality, in the processes of matter, „negative“ or „positive“, „absolute“ or „relative“, have no human „moral“ meaning. The process of „human history“ within the universal processes can be titulated by us as „positive“ or „negative“, but, in the last analysis, whether „human production“ as a process perishes or not, is not a matter dependent on „human will“ or desires. In fact according to Hegel, even history will meet its inevitable „doom“. Within class society, it depends on class interests how to define what is „positive“ or „negative“, thus, these categories are „relative“; absolute only is the relation of both to the universal processes. And, even then, for the dialectics, nothing is absolute, because the „absolute“ is relative to the „relative“.



Mandel explains the above as follows: „To understand motion, universal change, is also to understand the existence of an infinite number of transitory situations. ... That is why one of the fundamental characteristics of dialectics is the understanding of the relativity of things, the refusal to erect absolute barriers between categories, the attempt to find mediating forces between opposing elements. ... the relativity of categories is only partial relativity and not absolute relativity, ... in turn, it is equally necessary to make relativity relative.“ 19)



Why the „missing link“, the hybrid process between man and ape, dialectically ever came into existence, was precisely due to a unity and contradiction of opposites: Nature-Man. Man, including his most relevant feature, highly-developed consciousness, is a product, a child of natural objective processes, of the motion of matter. In the natural process, long before Man’s birth, potentially, in latency and tendency, the possibility of the evolution of man, including consciousness, was always present, is still existent, and may be existent elsewhere in the universe, even after Man has met his inevitable Hegelian „doom“, which is a dialectical synthesis to another essence and appearance, but surely not what we generally understand as „divine essence“ and „heavenly appearances“.

MAN, NATURE AND VIOLENCE

For conscious Man, who had lost himself, namely his umbilical cord to Mother Nature, Nature itself became a threat, a negation. In a most general sense, this threat to survival, to human life, was consciously comprehended as „negative“ to Man. Man felt that he was born in a violent natural surrounding. In all Man’s mythology, magical and religious beliefs, this threat of „violence“ can be traced back. But, as he was forced to labour, to use and develop tools, the principle of hope, the „positive“, the „affirmative“, emancipation also dawned into human consciousness. Thus, the unity and contradiction of violence-emancipation was established, but nothing about “violence-peace“ appeared in antiquated African imagination. Hence, Man is born in natural violence, he did not create violence, in other words, violence, in this sense, is natural, even positive to the process of human production. Without this natural violent threat human society, history could never have developed. From this point of view, „violence“ is not such an ugly word, as the „lords of the earth“ want us to make-believe. There are „mediating forces“ between the categories „violence-emancipation“, that is, they are relative to each other, emancipatory violence and violent emancipation.



In Africa, eventually the contradiction Man-Nature, gained more „essence“, and developed into Society-Nature, taking on various „appearance“ forms, and spreading its „content“ across the globe. With higher specialization, a more developed technology, division of labour, the emergence of classes, the genesis of private property of the means of production, etc., a new contradiction was created by Man directly in Society, a class contradiction, and thus, social class violence entered into the world, and into Africa. From a primary contradiction, a secondary one developed. Violence now developed into a new appearance form, class rule, ruling class violence. And, emancipation became class struggle. Class violence took on many appearance forms, religious persecution, political repression, economic exploitation, “racial“ discrimination, degradation of the woman, etc. At present class violence has reached such an intensity that once more the very existence, the essence of humanity, is threatened by total destruction, not so much by a nuclear holocaust, but by capitalism itself. The secondary contradiction has developed to an immediate primary contradiction again, and it essentially coincides with the original one: Society-Nature. The very human process of production, history is at stake.



In this context „violence“ has to be seen in South Africa; this is how Trotsky had conceived it when he supported social revolution in South Africa; and this is how it should be truly reflected in the African „imagination“. Whether the end of human history is „positive“, „affirmative“, „bad“ or „sad“ for mankind, is not the question. The problem is to comprehend our place and role within the universal process, in the motion of living matter.

VIOLENCE AND EMANCIPATION

Violence is a contradiction to Emancipation. In a certain sense, it tends to obstruct, to decelerate the motion of liberation, but motion itself is a function of totality, and it is our function, our objective too, thus, we have to be on the move to freedom. Our current problem is the Marxian dialectical leap to the „realm of necessity“, and further to the „realm of freedom“. And, in this respect, another dialectical category, “continuity-discontinuity“, a hybrid situation, gains great significance, especially in an epoch of „transition“ and transformation. „What is to be done?“ (Lenin) can be discovered in Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution, which has its genesis in Marx’s theory-praxis itself. And, concerning what has been stated above, Trotsky's theory of uneven and combined development precisely explains the problem „continuity-discontinuity“.



That violence can be eradicated in South Africa, in Africa, in the world, is a material possibility, and we know the method of how to accomplish this. The method can be found in the whole process of theory-praxis of emancipation throughout human history, and not only in the written works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, etc. Philosophically, already Greek philosophers like Anaximander or Heracleitus had used the dialectical method to explain the world out of itself. If we study ancient Asian, African and South American thought scientifically, we will probably discover that early Man in those regions had also done the same. In fact, the process of human production, history, could not have developed, if this method had not been applied, even though it was accidental or unconsciously. The relevance of Scientific Socialism is that we now know how to make history consciously.



As Marx had stated, capitalism, which in its essence is violence, violent exploitation, was born into the world, “.... from head to toe, with blood, flowing from all its pores“. 20) So it entered Africa and South Africa. And, so it is essentially today still. Apartheid, Nazism, Fascism are just some of its most obvious appearance forms. In its essence wages the permanent class struggle, capital versus labour. In that dialectical struggle violence and emancipation find their flowing location.



Now, for praxical purposes, the science of motion, dialectics, operates with the categories „proletariat-bourgeoisie“,“workers-capitalists“, but they are abstract-logical concepts, they have constantly to be verified on the real historical terrain. The Black mineworkers of South Africa are not identical with Marx’s concept of „proletariat“ in the Communist Manifesto of 1848. Hence, dialectics is not a dogma or a „Workers’ Bible“, it is the proletariat’s theory of knowledge, whose práxis is permanent revolution. Knowledge is an instrument to conserve homo sapiens sapiens, but, at the same time to revolutionize it. Thus, scientific knowledge is directed against all appearance forms of violence which threaten human survival. Ernest Mandel: „Knowledge is, therefore, born of the social practice of humanity; its function is to perfect this practice.” 21)



REVOLUTIONARY PRÁXIS-THEORY

This brings us to the exposition of the dialectical category: revolutionary „praxis-theory“ in general, and more specifically, in South Africa. Each thing, each movement has characteristics or peculiarities which are specific to it. Violence in South Africa has a specific „racial“ oppressive feature, which is not the case for example, in Switzerland or Venezuela. But, both can only be explained and comprehended within the framework of a larger entity, capitalist class violence. It follows, by applying the category „general-specific“, that the class struggle in South Africa will have its specific „práxis-theory“, but, it is part of the general world revolution.



Concerning the peculiarity of the South African revolution, Trotsky wrote in his „Letter“: „In so far as a victorious revolution will radically change not only the relation between the classes, but also between the races, and will assure to the Blacks that place in the State which corresponds to their numbers, in so far will the social revolution in South Africa also have a national character.“ 22)



Stressing the specificity of the South African situation, Trotsky appealed to the South African „proletarian“ party to „solve the national question by its own methods“. This is how Trotsky had operated in revolutionary praxical matters, and not with Comintern directives. But, he immediately related the specific to the generals „The historical weapon of national liberation can only be the CLASS STRUGGLE.“ 23) He gave no relevance, in a revolutionary sense, to the „race struggle“, „passive resistance“, „civil disobedience“, „non-violence“, etc. These mainly preoccupied the South African Communist Party, obeying Stalin's directives, and the „Congress“ movement of South Africa.

MARXIAN PRÁXIS-THEORY

Now, what is the Marxist conception of „práxis-theory“, which Trotsky was applying here in the South African context? Marx, in his first critique of Hegel, emphasized that „theory becomes a material force when it grips the masses“ 24), that is, when it „heightens“ their consciousness, giving them „confidence in their strength“ (Trotsky). In concrete terms, it means that the working masses of South Africa have to convert revolutionary theory, the dialectical method, into an instrument, a weapon of social revolution. How the relation práxis-theory comes into being, Marx had explained in the same essay: „It is not enough that thought should seek to realize itself; reality must also strive towards thought.“ 25) It is a dual dialectical movement, and even reality, affected and changed by praxis, can „strive“. Earlier, in another work, the otherwise very sober and awake Marx, spoke about a „dream“ to be realized „consciously“: „It will then be realized that the world has long since possessed something in the form of a dream which it need only take possession of consciously, in order to possess it in reality.“ 26)



Finally, concerning práxis-theory, Marx came to the conclusion, in the Theses on Feuerbach that it is not a matter of just interpreting the world in different ways, the point, is to change it. Trotsky had urged the South African „proletarian party“ that it „should in words and in deeds openly and boldly take the solution of the national (racial) problem in its hands.“ ( my emphasis) 27)



It is evident that. the emancipatory movement in South Africa, which is aimed against all forms of violence, necessitates the essential guide of the dialectical unity of práxis and theory. Such unity, however, cannot be realized without a real, concrete revolutionary organization. The eradication of class violence is not an individual task, it is the historic objective of South Africa's masses, as a totality, in motion.



Ever since Sharpeville, and particularly since Soweto, more than ever a true revolutionary organization is necessary in South Africa to unite the workers’ and students’ struggles. Ernest Mandel: „The function of a permanent revolutionary organization is to facilitate a reciprocal integration of student and working class struggle by their vanguards in a continuous way. There is not simply a continuum in time but also, so to speak, a continuum in space in the form of a continuity between different social groups who have the same socialist revolutionary purpose.“ 28)



In this respect, Trotsky was not blinded by „racial barriers“, already in 1933, half-a-century ago, he saw the possibility of revolutionary White students and workers joining the emancipation struggle: „The revolutionary party must put before every White worker the following alternative: either with British imperialism and with the White bourgeoisie of South Africa, or, with the Black workers and peasants against the White feudalists and slaveowners and their agents, in the ranks of the working class itself.“ 29) As we can see, this clarion call for unity was not a simple moral matter, but a principled question, based on revolutionary práxis-theory. Also, in this case, the White workers have first to develop a „heightened“ political consciousness, uniting revolutionary action and thought, because „any form of theory which is not tested through action is not adequate theory, it is useless theory from the point of view of the emancipation of mankind.“ (Mandel). 30)



The immediate objective of the South African revolution, of the workers of South Africa, is the struggle to acquire political power, State power. On February 4, 1921, when the Bolsheviks were in power, and Trotsky was making an important contribution in práxis-theory, writing on The Paris Commune, he stated: „Revolution is the open test of strength between social forces in the struggle for power“. He continued, giving a picturesque scene of how the dialectical method functions in theory-praxis, changing quantity into quality: „The popular masses revolt, set in motion by elemental vital impulses and interests, often without any conception of the paths and goals of the movement: one party writes ‘law and justice’ on its banners, another ‘order’; the ‘heroes’ of the revolution are ,guided by a consciousness of ‘duty’, or are carried away by ambition; the behaviour of the army is determined by discipline and fear, enthusiast, self-interest, routine, soaring flights of thought, superstition, self-sacrifice - thousands of feelings, ideas, moods, capabilities, passions, throw themselves into the mighty whirlpool, are seized by it, perish or rise to the surface; but the objective sense of a revolution is this - it is a struggle for State power in the name of reconstruction of antiquated social relationships.“ 31)



The above also shows the movement „concrete-abstract-concrete“, that „truth is always concrete“ (Lenin), and that „truth is the totality“ (Hegel). Classless society in Africa had produced class society; the South African revolution, as part of the totality of the African revolution, has the historic objective to produce on a higher degree again a classless society. Trotsky: „But more important, in all probability, will be the influence which a Soviet South Africa will exercise over the whole of the Black Continent.“ 32) The dialectical category „probability-inevitability“ more and more gains relevance, as the South African revolution advances. 33) But, the African revolutionaries have to be clear about what they want to negate, and whereto they want to surpass. As the dialectician Spinoza had emphasized: „Every determination is a negation“.

VIOLENCE AND CAPITALISM

It is the essence of violence in apartheid South Africa, capitalism, which emancipation is determining, negating and surpassing. Consciously this emancipatory movement, through emancipatory violence and violent emancipation, currently, is surpassing through the hybrid, transitory phase of the social revolution in South Africa. To achieve this goal the revolutionaries are using thought processes, the laws of the dialectics, as revolutionary instruments, to eliminate the various obstacles - that is why the students of Soweto exploded so violently, and why South Africa's Gestapo reacted so violently. But, goals are dialectically interconnected with means. Mandel: „Only certain means, the sum total of whose effects will actually bring us nearer to the goal, are efficient from that point of view. ... Both the capacity for fixing goals (including inventing new ones), and the constraints which imprison the choices of goals and means, characterize the dialectics of knowledge.“ 34) Trotsky was very clear about the political goal of the South African revolution: „The overthrow of British imperialism in South Africa is just as indispensable for the triumph of socialism in South Africa as it is for Great Britain itself.“ 35) In particular, it is the overthrow of imperialism in South Africa, and the achievement of socialism, but this process, in general, is directly dialectically linked with the overthrow of imperialism on a world scale, and the realization of world socialism.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, now it becomes clear why the term „violence“ cannot be „limited“ to its „normal“ (which is generally its bourgeois, ideological) connotation, that is, only to its physical, moral and psychological meaning. It is because it is the negation, contradiction of emancipation. Emancipation gives violence its essential connotation. Also, the term “African“ is an abstract-theoretical concept, like „mode of production“, it has to be related dialectically to the emancipatory struggle, 36) to the world revolution. The „African imagination“ is „African thought“, „African philosophy“, the particular of the general, „Proletarian Thought“, „Proletarian Philosophy“, Scientific Socialism, Marxism.



(Written originally in La Pedregosa, Mérida, Venezuela, 28th September, 1983.)



Notes



1) Parts of this letter are published in: Franz J. T. Lee, Südafrika vor der Revolution?, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1973, pp. 185-188. The complete text was originally printed in „Workers’ Voice“, Cape Town, November 1944, Volume 1, No. 2, pp. 18-20.

2) Lee, op. cit., p. 186.

3) See: Ginestra Amaldi, The Nature of Matter, Translated by Peter Astbury, University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London, 1982; George Novack, The Origins of Materialism, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1979, 4th Printing.

4) See: George Novack, An Introduction to the Logic of Marxism, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1978, Fifth Edition, pp. 17-20, 70. Also: Ernest Mandel, Introduction to Marxism, Ink Links, London, 1979, pp. 157-170.

5) Novack, An Introduction ..., op. cit., p. 70. Mandel, Introduction ..., op. cit., p. 158

6) Leon Trotsky, In Defense of Marxism, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1981, 3rd Ed., pp. 50, 51.

7) ibid. p. 51.

8) Ernest Mandel, Late Capitalism, Verso, London, 1980, 2nd Impr., pp. 13-20.

9) Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 3, (Kerr Edition), London, 1972, p. 797.

10) Novack, Introduction ..., op. cit., p. 113.

11) Lee, Südafrika ..., op. cit., p. 185.

12) Mandel, Late Capitalism, op. cit., p. 14.

13) ibid.

14) Lee, Südafrika ..., p.186.

15) See: Franz J. T. Lee, „Raíces históricas y socio-económicas de la ideología del ‘racismo’: Sudáfrica y Guyana“, in: Guyana Hoy, edited by Rita Giacalone de Romero, Editores Corpoandes, Editorial Venezolana C. A., Mérida, Venezuela, 1982, pp. 13 - 83. Also see: No Sizwe, One Azania, One Nation, Zed Press, London, 1979.

16) Lee, Südafrika…, p. 188

17) Franz J. T. Lee, „Dependency and Revolutionary Theory in the African Situation“, in Political Science in Africa, edited by Yolamu R. Barongo, Zed Press, London, 1983, p. 184.

18) Leon Trotsky, Portraits: Political and Personal, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1977, pp. 189-190, 202, 203.

19) Mandel, Introduction ..., p. 167.

20) Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Band I, Dietz Verlag, Ost-Berlin, S. 800-801. My free translation - FJTL.

21) Mandel, Introduction ..., op. cit., p. 169.

22) Lee, Südafrika ..., op. cit., p. 186. For an indepth analysis of Trotsky’s „Letter“, see: ibid., pp. 117-123.

23) ibid., p. 186.

24) Karl Marx, The Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, in: Early Writings edited by T. B. Bottomore, London, p. 52.

25) ibid., p. 54.

26) Karl Marx, Aus dem literarischen Nachlass von Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels und Ferdinand Lassalle (Nachlass), herausgegeben von Franz Mehring, (4 Vols.), Band I, (Correspondence of 1843), Stuttgart, 1902, pp. 382-383.

27) Lee, Südafrika ..., p. 186.

28) Ernest Mandel, The Revolutionary Student Movement: Theory and Practice, pamphlet, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1971, 2nd Ed., p. 15.

29) Lee, Südafrika ..., p. 188.

30) Mandel, The Revolutionary Student ..., op. cit., p. 11.

31) Leon Trotsky, On The Paris Commune, pamphlet, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1972, Second Ed., p. 11.

32) Lee, Südafrika ..., p. 188.

33) See: Franz J. T. Lee, Südafrika am Vorabend der Revolution, lnternationale Sozialistische Publikationen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1976, S. 51-63, 198-202. Also: Franz J. T. Lee, Technische Intelligenz und Klassenkampf, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1974, S. 91-103.

34)Mandel, Introduction ...,pp. 165, 166.

35Lee, Südafrika vor der Revolution?, op. cit., p. 188.

36)How, for example, this international struggle is interlinked through the problem of „racism“, and its overthrow by social revolution, and the realisation of socialism, in the case of South Africa (Africa) and Guyana (South America), see: Franz J. T. Lee, „Raíces históricas y socio-económicas de la ideología del ‘racismo’: Sudáfrica y Guyana“, in: Guyana Hoy, recopilado por Rita Giacalone de Romero, Editores Corpoandes, Editorial Venezolana C. A., Mérida, Venezuela, 1982, pags. 12-83. An English version, revised and abridged, will be published by the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, as Occasional Paper No. 2, in early 1984.