#ghana must go

[bug-slappy]

the best thing a teacher has ever taught me about canadian history was in grade 8, during history class. our teacher pulled out a copy of this book and explained that the history in the curriculum we’d been taught previous was a lie, and that he wasnt going to play into it. eventually other teachers found out and the school board tried to make him stop, but luckily he was switching school boards after the year anyways so there wasn’t much they could do.

if youre looking for a good introduction to canadian history thats accurate, the 500 years of resistance by gord hill is a comic series about the invasion and assimilation of colonialists settling in canada, and the aboriginal dispossession as a result

Canada has always played a huge part in colonization and imperialism (ghana, palestine, haiti, sudan, etc) that our government has tried to hide. imperialist canada by todd gordon is also a good read

we must hold canada accountable for its support in genocide and colonialism. knowledge is power.

#canada #books #im sure theres scans of both books you can find online #or check your local library

[realjaysumlin]

Black woman says this and left white people speechless..must watch

Too often when I tell people who call themselves white that there are no such things as white people and they became unhinged as if I had hit them with a baseball bat unprovoked.

I'm not one of the Black Indigenous People who believes in whiteness because it isn't real and I don't give my enemies what they like, I give them everything that they hate. This is psychological warfare at its best.

I'm not a Black Indigenous Man who calls myself Black but speaks the white narrative. Every time they mention Black slavery is continually being associated with Black and African and Black Indigenous People globally themselves repeat the same white narrative because they are indoctrinated in believing whiteness.

Black Americans say that they are from Africa due to the transatlantic slave trade, really? How do you know that you didn't come here long before the slave trade even started? How do you know if you didn't come from Mexico, Australia, Oceania, Indonesia or somewhere else where Black Indigenous People globally were transported from to be enslaved in America?

What makes you think that you were not already here because of the Migration out of Africa? We have irrefutable evidence that a small part of our DNA traces back to Africa the same as the entire human population.

People who call themselves European and white receive indigenous status in Africa and obtained land because they were approved and Black Indigenous Africans had to pay for land, how is this right? If you have lived in Africa as I did I couldn't tell where in the fuck I lived because I seen more people who call themselves white living on the African continent than I see in some cesspools we call America and Europe.

If these countries are so great, why in the fuck are you calling Africa home? While living in Ghana I had to go to the villages where Black Indigenous Africans lived to get away from people who call themselves white.

I couldn't stand living in Egypt due to most of the people speaking French and Egypt living under the control of the French. Colonization has fucked up our Black Planet because we can't go anywhere without the threat of whiteness.

I'm so damn sick and tired of whiteness I find it hard to sleep at night, due to the irrefutable truth that this is a cancer that needs eradicating so that we can have peace.

#black love #black positivity #black africans #black history #science #evolution #science side of tumblr #Youtube

[conacoflakes]

Conan O’Brien media archive

As a rule of thumb I avoid any movie streaming services or other ways to download that aren't totally virus free, etc. so these links lead to Drive, archive.org, and YouTube or other trusted media sharing sites.

Shows + TV

Conan O'Brien Must Go (2024) | Drive

Conan visits his fans from around the globe and indulges in various countries cultures. His most recent show with only 4 episodes: Norway, Argentina, Thailand, and Ireland. All four episodes can be found at this drive link

Late Night With Conan O'Brien (1993 - 2009) | archive.org @ mountainmikeinoregon

Archived episodes of Late Night sorted by year. Not a complete collection, many episodes are missing (for example the 1993 collection jumps from episodes 1-4 to episode 35) but a great deal of them are here. Easy to access and watch.

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009-2010) | archive.org

The show he briefly inherited from Leno which would cause the infamous TV war between them. Conan would leave NBC for TBS after this. All 145 Conan episodes that aired are in here.

Conan Without Borders (2018) | dailymotion

A series of specials that aired on Conan where he travels various countries. The precursor to the 2024 show. Filmed during the height of the Trump administration which is reflected in a lot of the jokes, topics, and other parts of the show. Various clips are also avaliable on YouTube. QnA's are also avaliable on YouTube.

Episode List:

1. Conan in Cuba - 49:18 2. Conan in Armenia - 42:48 3. Qatar - Unable to find 4. Conan Does Korea - 36:23 5. Conan in Berlin - 42:58 6. Conan Without Borders: Made in Mexico- 42:20 7. Israel - Unable to find. Judging from the clips this episode paints Israel in an extremely sympathetic light. Know that I stand with Palestine and that Israel is an Apartheid state. Learn more at decolonizepalestine.org 8. Conan Without Borders: Haiti - 42:04 9. Conan in Italy - 50:13 10. Conan in Japan - 42:03 11. Conan Without Borders: Australia - 42:03 12. Conan Without Borders: Greenland - 42:01 13. Conan Without Borders: Ghana - 43:00

Film

CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP (2011) - Part 1 / Part 2 | dailymotion

CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP is a documentary about what Conan and his crew did on tour before TBS. After Jay Leno took back his show, Conan travels to 32 different cities to do improv while attempting to severe all ties with NBC. Fun film with more intimate and candid moments of him and his crew.

CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP - Commentary by Conan, Andy Richter, Sona Movsesian & More (2011) | archive.org - YouTube

CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP is a documentary about what Conan and his crew did on tour before TBS. This version of the film has his own commentary over it.

Podcasts & Radio

The Conan and Jordan Show (Podcast) | soundcloud.com | episode 1 | episode 2

Only two episodes have been uploaded. Apparently the site that it’s hosted on (SiriusXM) doesn’t even show all the episodes available.

To be updated as more links are found

#archive #media #conan o'brien #the tonight show with Conan o’brien #late night with Conan o’brien #Conan Without Borders #The Conan and Jordan Show #CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP #conan o'brien must go

[yesterdayandkarma]

Afro by Ghana Must Go

[octuscle]

Hello Chronivac! Love your work! I’ve been hitting the gym pretty hard, and made good progress. But there is just so much growing I need to do! I’m especially envious of this huge, hulking black bodybuilder from Ghana who works out there, the dude must be 250 pounds at the peak of his bulk! What I wouldn’t give to be that race and be that size.

So, answer the question! What would you give for that? First of all, you would give your mother tongue. You are having dinner with friends. You understand English quite well. But you speak it only brokenly. Your friends look at you in horror as you try to explain to the waiter what you want to eat. You do not understand. Your native language is Twi. Of course you learned English at school. But your heart never beat in English.

Then I suppose you would give your job for the body. You are now working at the street cleaning service. As you place your order, you glance again at the prices on the menu. Damn it! In your lifetime, you can only afford a mineral water here. One of your friends looks at you, recognizes your concern and says it's okay. You are invited.

With your job, of course, you have to give up your lifestyle. Your expensive suit becomes a cheap pair of jeans and a jacket made of faux leather. Underneath you wear a washed-out T-shirt. You are proud of your sneakers. Real Adidas. Not fake. You found them cheap at the flea market. You check your old, scratched-up cell phone for public transport times. Somehow you have to get back from Soho to your social settlement later. The last bus leaves in an hour and a half. Okay, then you can even order an appetizer. Before you go to bed, you'll have a protein shake anyway.

Unfortunately, you also have to give up your social environment. Everything revolves around you. The chic Italian restaurant turns into a café with bright neon lights. Coffee cups on the table. And a full ashtray. Many of the immigrants from Ghana, with whom you meet here to talk or play dominoes, smoke. It's not yours. Your body is your temple.

And you also have to cut down on your free time. You can't get your body from drinking coffee and playing dominoes. And with only one job you can't afford the masses of protein you need. That's why you say goodbye. Your gym closes in an hour. That's enough for one more training session. And after that you'll clean the showers and toilets.

So, now you have given up enough. With every step you take towards the gym, your skin gets darker, your steps get heavier. Your body is reaping the rewards of everything you've given up. You are a poorly trained street cleaner. But by far the hottest one imaginable. I hope that was worth it to you.

Found you pic @lookuptoblack

#male tf #muscle tf #reality change #chronivac #male transformation #muscle transformation #race change #hiviz tf

[shadycomputerpolice]

The Role of Seperatism in Female Liberation

Yes, seperatism will not end patriarchy. I have never seen any seperatist make that claim so I wonder why anti-seperatists like to point that out like their lives depend on it. Also, no singular act, outside of killing all males, can achieve that.

And yes, seperatism is often an individual action. Just like anti-beauty: not shaving, not wearing make up and heels, etc but we still understand that those acts of resistance, even though individual, have value and contribute positively to women and girls' wellbeing.

What seperatism does claim is that it protects women and girls' wellbeing by denying males access to them.

As seen in the images above, for [misogynistic] crimes to happen, all three elements: opportunity, desire and ability must be present and removing just one of them prevents crime. The images above apply to all crimes but since we are talking about female seperatism we can tailor it down to Gender Based Violence (GBV).

Seperatism is about preventing GBV by removing opportunity for harm. Individual seperatists can achieve personal safety in their homes while seperatist communities can achieve community wide safety. So when you claim seperatism is useless you are basically saying crime prevention efforts that focus on denying potential criminals the opportunity to commit crimes is useless. If that is your claim then you have to provide evidence of that.

Seperatists recognise that women cannot influence the ability and desire of males to harm females because behavioural change is self motivated so they focus on what they have control over which is the opportunity for harm.

Now are males, like all predators, going to seek new ways to gain opportunities to harm females, yes of course they are. Outside of GBV, criminals are always changing their strategies especially when their previous strategy becomes well known and people stop falling for it. Using cyber crime as an example because I am Nigerian (LOL), when people stopped falling for the destitute African Prince method, they changed to other methods like romance scams and blackmail. Criminals/Predators are always to seek new ways to catch their victims/prey which is the why the victims/prey must always be alert and aware of the criminals/predators methods so that they can protect themselves.

So yes, as long as men exist, they will be no feminist utopia where women and girls can exist without the threat of violence. We will always need to be on guard and strive to protect ourselves from them no matter the method they use.

Seperatism cannot save all women and girls in the world just like how crime prevention efforts in Ghana cannot save me in Nigeria and I shouldn't even be expecting it to because geography, language barrier, national laws, etc. What can be done is we adapt the methods used in Ghana to our local context and apply it to see results.

Seperatism is an elective individual and geographical community level action that has the potential to save all women and girls but nobody is kidnap unwilling people and hold them hostage.

And I know, someone is going to scream " VICTIM BLAMING" and to that I say, I don't care about being labelled a victim blamer. However, if you have another viable method for keeping women and girls safe, kindly put forward your idea so it can be evaluated. Please note if you suggest "educating men and boys", I will block you because I don't have the patience for that level of stupidity and delusion.

Sidenote:

I always wondered why allegedly smart women will "but child brides in Afghanistan" as a counter to female seperatism. The wins of feminism activism will always be limited by geography. There is no feminist activism that will impact the lives of ALL women and girls. An individual's or organisation's target populatin will be limited by geography and unfortunately by resources. You can't help everybody applies in feminism too.

Imagine if someone said that about abortion rights in the US. "Fighting for abortion in America doesn't help child brides in Afghanistan". Most people can see how ridiculous and frankly insulting it is to bring up that issue.

#radical feminism #female seperatism

[cozyaliensuperstar7]

Beautiful People 👑

dionnesmithhair:

Teyonah Parris for Essence Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon

Hair @dionnesmithhair @7evenmanagement

Makeup @gene9902

Styling @bryonjavar

#dionnesmith #7evenmgmt #7MArtist #teyonahparris #essencebwih #hollywood #actress #hairstylist @blumbyteyonah

trickwilliams_wwe:

Can’t go out sad

blackmagcovers:

@the_real_iman by @abdmstudio for @harpersbazaararabia.

Lighting: @vintage_fiasco

Styling: @ayumiperry

Hair: hoshounkpatin

Make Up: @kilprity

#iman #blackmagcovers #blackmagblackphotog

lashanalynch:

A luxury moment with @louisvuitton. Thank you for having us @nicolasghesquiere and congrats on a stunning show!

hallebailey:

you guys have asked for it, so i’ll gladly give it to you ✨in your hands 3/15 💔 presave now link in bio

cocogauf:

some more magical moments from @voguemagazine ✨

Vogue  @voguemagazine

Writer: Abby Aguirre @abbyaguirre

Photographer: Annie Leibovitz @annieleibovitz

Fashion Editor: Tabitha Simmons @tabithasimmons

Hair: Lacy Redway @lacyredway

Makeup: Raisa Flowers @raisaflowers

Talent Director: Sergio Kletnoy @sergiokletnoy

india_amarteifo:

Some highlights of FW24 ✨ Working with an eco-responsive mindset IS possible within the world of fashion, 3 examples of beautiful brands who champion climate human consciousness are shown here (alongside some lovely people I’ve met and seen along the way ❤️)

7th picture credit: @ameliechatellard

rhearipley:

💦🐺

blackmagcovers:

@keithpowers for @teenvogue.

Story by @kaitmcnab

Stylist: @ian__mcrae

#keithpowers #blackmagcovers

theestallion:

I ❤️ JAPAN 🇯🇵

kellyrowland:

Grazie @graziaphilippines 🤎🤎

domfishback:

💋MaDOM Dior💋

victoriamonet:

🤎 I’ll be there, by your side baby

bet:

It’s Ghana’s 67th Independence Day and we must honor the rich culture, music, art, and so much more that the motherland has offered over the years…and for blessing us with fine men like #KofiSiriobe 🙏🏽 🇬🇭 💛 #NAACPImageAwards

michaelacoelweb:

‘A face card that never declines ✨ Makeup by me @berniciaboateng on #michaelacoel for the @netaporter international womens day dinner

Blush @danessa_myricks

Stylist @georgmedley

Dress @paolocarzana’ via @berniciaboateng ✨

Gorgeous Michaela 👑✨👑❤️

blackspinglobal:

Coco TIME | Coco Gauff wowed at the 2024 TIME Women of the Year Gala on Tuesday alongside her father Corey.⁣

During her toast, the US Open champion named the likes of Venus and Serena Williams and her grandmother Yvonne Lee Odom, among others, as inspirations.⁣

📸 | Getty⁣

#BlackSpinGlobal | #CocoGauff | #Gauff | #HeadTennis | #NBTennis | #USA | #WTATour | #WTA | #TIME | #WomenOfTheYear

chloeadvocate:

chloe on the @essence black women in hollywood carpet 🤍

📸 @gettyimages #chloebailey #chloe #chloexhalle #explore #dreads #locs #chlovers #sirens #parkwoodentertainment

jadecargill:

Hoes couldn’t CHECK me on my WORST day 💅🏾.

victoriamonet:

Thank you so much @billboard for a beautiful night celebrating women in music and for honoring me with your Rising Star award!! ✨🤎 I am so grateful 🙏🏾

Styled by @kollincarter in custom @roberto_cavalli @azature @faustopuglisi

Glam: @mua.alexander

Hair: @iamdavontae

📸 @jpwphoto

halleupdate:

Halle Bailey and Chloe Bailey at the 2024 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Awards Ceremony.

hallebailey:

today i felt like a princess 💘it was an honor to receive the essence black woman in hollywood award 🥹💘to be lifted up by so many women who have paved the way for me to be here today is an incredibly special feeling. thank you to my sister @chloebailey for presenting me with this award, i was a crying mess 😭i’m also so grateful to my siblings @skiwithaneye & @bransonbailey_ for saying such beautiful words about our journey as a family, and how we got here. as well as rob marshall, @tlabarbe & @deoncole for contributing such special words about the journey. i am incredibly honored & thankful 💕 i will never forget today.

cocogauf:

thank you @voguemagazine for this amazing cover. it’s truly an honor and i am forever grateful for this opportunity ❤️✨

Fashion Editor: Tabitha Simmons @tabithasimmons

Vogue  @voguemagazine\nWriter: Abby Aguirre @abbyaguirre

Photographer: Annie Leibovitz @annieleibovitz

Hair: Lacy Redway

@lacyredway

Makeup: Raisa Flowers @raisaflowers

Talent Director: Sergio Kletnoy @sergiokletnoy

#beautiful people #coco gauff #saweetie #greta gerwig #taraji p. henson #marsai martin #andra day #halle bailey #megan thee stallion #jade cargill #chlöe bailey #michaela coel #victoria monét #kelly rowland #candi gauf #corey gauf #keith powers #samantha irvin #rhea ripley #india amarteifio #lashana lynch #iman #teyonah parris #trick williams #kofi siriboe

[apenitentialprayer]

May 11, 2023

Earlier today, Pope Francis declared that 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians, who were beheaded by Islamic militants in Libya in 2015, would be added to the Roman Martyrology. Francis made the announcement during an audience with Pope Tawadros II, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The “21 Coptic New Martyrs of Libya,” as they are called, were martyred on February 15, 2015. Less than a week later, they were declared saints in the Coptic Orthodox Church by Pope Tawadros. The Copts celebrate their feast on the anniversary of their death, February 15, and it appears that this will also be their feast day on the Roman calendar.

The world was shocked in February 2015, when a 5-minute video was uploaded to the internet by ISIS militants. The video showed the 21 kidnapped men in orange jumpsuits being beheaded on a beach near the Libyan city of Sirte. 20 of these martyrs were Egyptian Copts who had gone to Libya to do construction work. The last member of the group, Matthew Ayariga, was a fellow worker from Ghana. It is said that he told the executioners, “Their God is my God. I will go with them.” There has been some question over whether he was already Christian or whether the witness of his 20 coworkers led to his conversion, but nevertheless, his Christian witness and solidarity are inspiring. It was reported that as they died, they chanted hymns and prayed aloud.

The deaths of these men as Christian martyrs is undeniable. The extraordinary photos of Blessed Miguel Pro, a Catholic priest who was executed by the Mexican government in 1927 during the Cristero War — taken just moments before the he was shot by the firing squad — are perhaps the only other photographic images recording a Christian martyrdom as it happened. And yet the recognition of the 21 martyrs as Catholic saints is unprecedented for several reasons.

The primary reason, of course, is that the Coptic Orthodox Church is not in full communion with Rome. The Copts are Oriental Orthodox (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox), because they split from the other Christian churches in the year 451 at the Council of Chalcedon due to differences over the nature of Christ. They are also referred to as “Non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches.” This means that they recognize the first three ecumenical councils, whereas the Eastern Orthodox recognize seven, and the Catholic Church recognizes 21 ecumenical councils.

After more than 15 centuries, our hope of reunion may seem remote. After all these years, the two Churches have independently developed their own traditions, theologies, forms of worship, and prayers. Yet some things have remained the same. Both Churches have maintained apostolic succession and the sacraments: Pope Francis is the successor of St. Peter and Pope Tawadros is the successor of St. Mark. In recent decades, the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church has become closer. For example, in 2017, Popes Francis and Tawadros made a joint statement indicating mutual acceptance of the validity of baptism in both Churches.

Pope Francis has praised the Martyrs of Libya many times, and today he recalled our shared baptism, as well as the blood of martyrs that enriches the Church. He said, “These martyrs were baptized not only in the water and Spirit, but also in blood, a blood that is the seed of unity for all of Christ’s followers.” In the past, the pope has discussed how we must realize that we, the baptized, have much more in common than what divides us. This shared recognition of sainthood between the two Churches is a significant step towards Christian unity.

This sets a new precedent. In 1964, when the Ugandan Martyrs were canonized by Pope Paul VI, St. Charles Lwanga and the other 21 Catholics among his companions were declared saints. The 23 Anglicans who were martyred alongside them were mentioned briefly in the pope’s homily, when he said, “And we do not wish to forget, the others who, belonging to the Anglican confession, met death for the name of Christ.”

Another reason why today’s announcement is unique was that Pope Francis did this by an official act. The Roman Martyrology is the official list of saints officially recognized by the Latin Church. Many Eastern Catholic Churches have their own processes for canonizing saints according to their traditions. Historically, when groups of Eastern Catholics have come into full communion with Rome, they will bring along their saints and prayers and traditions. Many of these saints aren’t officially canonized by Rome, and they are usually only venerated in their own tradition. By inscribing the names of these martyrs in the Roman Martyrology, Pope Francis has made it clear that these martyrs are to be venerated by Roman Catholics as saints.

Finally, in declaring them saints today, Pope Francis sidestepped the typical canonization process. They are saints, without having passed through the usual stages of Servant of God, Venerable, and Blessed. This “skipping” of steps is commonly referred to as “equipollent canonization.” Essentially, when a pope declares someone a saint by an official act, that person is recognized as a saint in the Church. This is not the first time Francis has moved a case along in this way. For example, when he canonized Popes John XXIII and John Paul II in 2014, he waived the requirement of a second miracle for John XXIII so that the two popes would be canonized on the same day. In 2013, he elevated the Jesuit Peter Faber, whose status had lingered at “Blessed” since 1872.

Perhaps the most interesting case is that of St. Gregory of Narek, an Armenian monk venerated as a saint in the Armenian Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. Unexpectedly, Pope Francis named him the 36th Doctor of the Church in 2015. Living from in the mid-10th century through the early 11th, St. Gregory lived at a time when the Armenian Church was not in communion with Rome. After several failed attempts at reunion, the Armenian Catholic Church was officially recognized as an Eastern Catholic Church in 1742. Interestingly, the Armenian Catholic eparchy of Buenos Aires (established in 1989 by Pope John Paul II) is called the Eparchy of Saint Gregory of Narek. Perhaps this is how Pope Francis became familiar with the saint.

We Christians are blessed with a wide variety of saints from all sorts of backgrounds. They help make up the beautiful tapestry of the people of God — praying for us, interceding for us, and inspiring us. This is something worth celebrating.

21 Coptic New Martyrs of Libya, Pray for Us!

Mike Lewis. Bolded emphases added.

#Catholicism #Oriental Orthodox Christianity #Christianity #saints #martyrs #Libyan Martyrs #My Pope #Pope Tawadros II #Ugandan Martyrs #Miguel Pro

[kemetic-dreams]

What do great civilizations have in common?

"What common attributes do great civilizations share? They typically possess access to both local and global markets, the capacity to attract a diverse population eager to settle for the purposes of commerce and education, accepting influence and reflecting influence, I will use African examples, but this is true the world over.

There was a saying "To cure mange for a camel, use bitumen; to cure poverty, go to the Sudan." this was said at the time of the Wagadu or Ghana empire when great trading trains were crisscrossing the Sahara, both the Wagdau and Gao were mentioned as the richest kingdoms in the world and their Kings the most wealthiest beyond compare, this was hundreds of yrs before the now famous Mansa Musa of Mali, it’s ultimate successor.

These conceptions do not need to extend outside the continent although the more extensive the better, example.

These connections between West and West-Central Africa to the world are anathema to historical traditions in which ‘Africa” s isolation from the rest of the world, before contact began with Europeans, is assumed. But they emerge from a number of factors. As the historian Jan Vansina showed, similar techniques in wood-carving found from Yorùbá regions as far south as Loango suggest shared techniques and exchanges. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century carvings from the Kuba kingdoms depict the playing of warri, a game found widely further north in West Africa, as well as in East Africa.

Other evidence suggests that these exchanges then interconnected with the long-distance routes linked to the Sahara – and these patterns may in turn have influenced how the Kongolese reacted when the Portuguese first arrived in the 1480s.

Kongo’s connection to long-distance trade routes is the only logical explanation for how sugarcane – long cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Arab worlds – grew in Kongo before the Portuguese arrival.

Long-distance trade can also help to explain the use of a shell currency in Kongo (the nzimbu), for the use of the nzimbu surely was not unrelated to the experience of the use of the cowrie-shell currency in West Africa and the Sahel; the Kalahari regions to the south were connected to the Indian Ocean trade by perhaps the ninth or tenth century, and cowries may have been involved in this trade – which offered a route for this influence to spread to Kongo addition, there seems to have been an important spiritual dimension that connected the forest Kingdom of Kongo with that of Benin to the north, for it is noteworthy that both Edo and Kongo peoples (and, indeed, peoples of the Kingdom of Ndongo in northern Angola) used diamond-shaped crosses as a religious symbol prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. In Kongo, the ‘cosmogram’ connected the worlds of the living and the dead, and was used widely on textiles and bowls used for daily life, as well as later in Christian art.

The use of the cross as a religious symbol among the Edo also suggests some cultural and perhaps commercial connection between Edo and Kongo peoples, as does the shared use of shell currencies, similar wood-carving techniques and the presence of sugarcane in Kongo, since all had likewise existed in Benin prior to the Portuguese arrival.

Yet how did these connections develop, in a region famous for its thick forests and swamps? As we have seen in other parts of the continent, rivers and seaways were roads. Many peoples along the coasts of West-Central Africa were good boat-builders, with the Vili of Loango remarked upon as such by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. There were fishing groups to be found everywhere, and their skill in making seagoing ships is shown by the presence of Bubi peoples on the Island of Bioko by the time the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century.

But The idea that Europeans ‘brought’ seafaring to Africa must also, therefore, be challenged. Thus, it was most likely through African navigators that related religious and aesthetic practices grew up; and when the manikongo Afonso I wrote in 1526 of a number of traders from Benin resident in the Kongolese port of Mpinda, it is possible that they found their way there in local embarkations rather than through Portuguese networks.

The Kongo ‘cosmogram’ Kongo may not, therefore, have been as isolated from other parts of West Africa as has hitherto been supposed.

From the book A Fist Full Of Shells, By Toby Green 

#african #afrakan #kemetic dreams #africans #afrakans #brown skin #brownskin #african culture #ghana #mpinda #kongolese #kongo #europeans #great countries #ancient civilizations #civilization #great civilization #afonso #benin #edo #sahara #mansa musa #wagdu #sudan #ta seti #north africa #a fist full of shells #toby green #west africa #mali

[ptseti]

THEY MUST NOT DIE: STORY OF SCOTTSBORO

On March 25th, 1931, nine Black boys in Alabama, USA were falsely charged with r*ping a White woman. They would then be sentenced to death. Labelled a legal case of lynching, this case, known as the Scottsboro Boys case, blew up across the country and the world as a major part of the early Civil Rights Struggle.

The Scottsboro Boys case was a pivotal moment in Black history in the United States that had rippling effects that would impact generations to come. The international struggle to free the Scottsboro Boys led to the largest resistance movement against racism in the US justice system in history. The international impact of the Scottsboro case was so far reaching that a Sedition Bill was passed in Ghana (then the British colony of the Gold Coast) to prevent Africans from agitating in support of the Scottsboro Boys.

While the case did officially bring about certain legal reforms to the carceral system, such as mandating the presence of Black jurors in cases with Black defendants, this would often go unenforced throughout the 20th century and into the present. In one example, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur would go on to be sentenced to life in prison by an all-White jury. In 1986, a court ruled that race could not be used as a factor in the initial establishment of a jury pool. In 2021, there were two high-profile cases in which nearly all-White juries acquitted White men for shooting and killing Black men - the murders of Jake Blake and Ahmaud Arbery.

Africans in the United States and throughout the diaspora continue to struggle against a racist criminal justice system in which they are disproportionally incarcerated.

BlackBoys #Alabama #USA #False #Charge #WhiteWoman

[odera]

Virtue Signals for the Ghana Must Go Gworl by Odera Igbokwe.

Oil and acrylic on canvas. 2023.

Available to view until March 18 at the @burrardarts gallery 🌻

Making this painting was such an exciting opportunity! I wanted to pour more of my personality and playfulness into bigger surfaces, and to still allow the magic and reverence I have for the spiritual to come through. Sometimes the magic is ancestral, and sometimes the magic is going out to buy ingredients for a stirfry and keeping your cool as you’re interrupted by a “PURRRR. SLAAAAYY mzzsx maMaaaA!”💐🧡🫣🥴

#Odera #Odera Igbokwe #artist on tumblr #QPOC artist #black art

[illustratinglaura]

Marauders African AU Moodboard.

Something is brewing.

Image sources:

1. Adrian Patterson https://www.instagram.com/beingadp?igsh=MTFnOG1scjd0bTdhdA==

2. Fabrice Monteiro https://www.artsy.net/artwork/fabrice-monteiro-the-missing-link-joe-1

3. Have not yet found the original photo, but there was Pinterest upload: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/408349891216856527/

4. Theresa Fractale http://www.blackgeeksociety.com/socialpsychopathblrtheresa-fractale/2016/08/26

5. And 6. http://mondoexploito.com/?p=7602

7.killstar https://www.instagram.com/p/BVEyPYdj313/?igsh=MTliM3I3MHFheTkxOA==

8. Simon Chetrit, Afro Punk Festival 2018, Repeller https://repeller.com/afropunk-festival-street-style-2018/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mr_owned

Also: there should definitely be a school of magic in Timbuktu. And Benin. And Egypt. Why only Uagadou?

There must have been some type of shitty after taste from imperialism and lot of the Ancient schools just decided not to be involved with the Western Wizarding world.

I bet the Western magic is so different from African magic that the Western schools of witchcraft don’t even recognize the African school of magic as real magic. And the magic would be different in different parts of Africa.

in West Africa There would be a lot more nature bound rituals, music and collaboration with the ancestral spirits and communal magic. The spells would involve long incantations based in ancient African languages done in sacred ritual places and there would be less emphasis on face to face duels and other brutal methods of the whites. There would be no use of fragile magic wands. The magic would be tied to an objects like a pot filled with magical items hidden in ground and the object would be dug out and used to perform powerful magic in secret gatherings. The magic would be communal and would depend to be produced as a group and not an individual effort. There would also be significantly more animagi and no requirement to be registered, much to the annoyance of the Europeans.

So Uagadou was probably just the most European complying and adopted more of their techniques and was included in the list of officially recognized schools as they fit the European idea of what magic is and what a school of magic is.

Just my thinking. I would love someone to develop this idea. I’m feeling sort of not allowed to go very far with this on my own as I’m not African and am very bloody white myself. I have however lived in Ghana for a decade and married to Ghanian for 16 years and I feel pretty integrated and maybe this is why I feel so drawn to the idea of African schools of witchcraft. Maybe as something my kids could relate to.

#marauders #marauders au #african marauders au #uagadou

[beardedmrbean]

Jacqueline Addo remembers the time two years ago when her husband Joshua confided to her that the stress of adjusting to life in Canada from Ghana was proving too much for him to bear.

He had reached a breaking point, and her own mental health wasn't great.

"I was just a shadow of myself, basically," she said.

Joshua was struggling to find a job in his field as a financial adviser, and had instead worked stints at a courier company and at Costco.

With Jacqueline looking after their children, they were unable to make ends meet on one salary and had to borrow money from family and friends every month to survive.

While Joshua has an administrative job with Nova Scotia Power today, and the couple is finally able to rest a little easier and plan for the future, not all immigrants fare as well.

The stresses caused by the upheaval of moving to a new country — and the often huge chasm between what immigrants are led to expect about life in Canada and the reality — can lead to depression, frustration and a loss of self-esteem, according to experts.

A study released in December by Mental Health Research Canada found that new Canadians are almost twice as likely to express concerns about feeding their families as people born in Canada.

It said food insecurity and isolation from a family and friends support network have been tied to higher incidences of mental health challenges.

In 2022, more than 437,000 immigrants moved to Canada. A record 12,500 of those arrivals came to Nova Scotia, according to a survey commissioned by the province — and that figure could rise, with Ottawa hoping to attract 500,000 newcomers a year by 2026.

The stress of acculturation

Iqbal Chowdhury is a PhD candidate at Dalhousie University whose doctoral research focuses on the mental health condition of immigrants moving to Canada.

Chowdhury, who is from Bangladesh, said his research indicates immigrants tend to have better mental health than their Canadian-born counterparts.

Other research suggests people who successfully navigate Canada's immigration system, particularly in the economic class, are healthier because they are well educated, slightly younger than average Canadians and must go through medical screening.

But over time, he said, the mental health of immigrants deteriorates until it matches that of the general population — a phenomenon described as the healthy immigrant effect, or the immigrant paradox. One of the potential causes, he said, is stress associated with the acculturation process.

Iqbal Chowdhury is a PhD candidate at Dalhousie University doing doctoral research on the mental health condition of immigrants moving to Canada. (Ira Clarke)

Another is diminishing self-worth. As part of the immigration process, people are considered based on their training and employment history in their country of origin, and they have the expectation of getting a similar job in Canada, Chowdhury said.

But once they arrive, they often find it very hard to use their previous experience and educational credentials, he said.

"It actually affects their aspiration and affects their self-esteem, and I would say that it also prevents them from developing a social network with their community in Canada," he said.

"When they cannot get a job in the labour market, they find it is really a kind of shame to share with people back home, as well as the community living in Canada."

Chowdhury said mental health is one of the important determinants of social and economic development and progress. If Canada wants to build a productive future generation of immigrants, he said, it is important to study the problems faced by immigrants and take a close look at the resources that are available to improve their mental health.

Career setbacks

It can take immigrants years to work their way back up the career ladder, the Conference Board of Canada noted in a September report it prepared for the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.

"While the fairy tale of Canada as a land of opportunity still holds for many newcomers, this study points to burgeoning disillusionment," institute CEO Daniel Bernhard said in the report.

"After giving Canada a try, growing numbers of immigrants are saying 'no thanks,' and moving on."

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement that it offers preventive and non-clinical mental health support to newcomers through third-party settlement organizations.

It also partners with the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to help address the mental health needs of newcomers, the statement said.

Unable to find suitable jobs

According to the conference board report, nearly 15 per cent of immigrants left Canada within 15 years of obtaining permanent resident status. But for some who are now hoping to move elsewhere, the process of uprooting again is not a viable option, particularly if they are older.

Manmeet and Randeep Oberoi sold everything they had and moved from the Indian state of Punjab in 2018 with their two children.

The couple, who are in their 50s, have post-graduate degrees from Indian universities.

Manmeet was a principal at a teaching college and Randeep was a credit manager at a bank.

Manmeet got her Nova Scotia teaching certification and now works as a substitute teacher, but has been unable to find a permanent position.

Manmeet and Randeep Oberoi moved to Halifax from India in 2018. (Gagan Oberoi)

Despite taking several banking courses since arriving, Randeep said he is still jobless.

He said they expected it would take some time, maybe up to two years, to find permanent employment.

While the couple are now Canadian citizens, Randeep said he still has no idea how to make inroads in the job market.

Manmeet said the experience has been especially frustrating because she loves teaching and has a wealth of specialized skills.

Manifestations of stress

Carmen Celina Moncayo, a supervisor at Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia and a psychologist by training, said the stress caused by the immigration experience can manifest itself in many ways.

"People can develop depression. People can develop anxiety. People can have sleeping problems, eating [problems], irritability," she said.

"Mistrust of themselves, mistrust in the environment … all the ways that our body reflects stress."

Moncayo, who is originally from Colombia, said her association teaches people that what they are experiencing is a completely normal reaction to the feeling of being uprooted.

After more than five years in Nova Scotia, Manmeet Oberoi wonders if the decision to move here was the right one.

"It is very, very stressful," she said.

"Sometimes I don't know how to survive here because, if we don't have the jobs here, then why are so many people coming here?"

#nunyas news #and then a doctor suggests maid to them

[anentomologist]

Cool Bug Facts #1

The long Sleep of the Sleeping Chironomid, Polypedilum vanderplanki:

On the surface, there's nothing too interesting about this fly. It's a tiny little non-biting midge that exclusively lays their eggs in tiny little puddles that form in a hollow on a rock in Northern Nigeria and nearby areas (one of the original papers claims it was found in Ghana, but I suspect this was a mistake. gBIF (a repository of data of collected and observed organisms) has occurrence records from Burkina Faso, Nigeria (and Japan, but those were grown in captivity)).

As you can imagine, life as a larva in a tiny puddle formed in a hollow on a rock is pretty unstable. One moment you're swimming around having the time of your life and the next moment you're getting up close and personal with the evaporation stage of the water cycle.

Since this would automatically kill any larva not about to burst into fly form like Clark Kent turning into superman (an incredibly accurate description of pupation), they had to figure out something else, and so they unlocked... hmmm... what's the opposite of going super saiyan?

Oh, yeah: anhydrobiosis- extreme desiccation tolerance

They can get so dried up they're only like 3% water (a fact that would be more interesting if I could tell you the original % water they were. Some caterpillars are around 75% water, so let's say somewhere around there.)

This is super extreme! These flies (and possibly a related species, Polypedium pembai) are the only insects known to go through anhydrobiosis, although other animals, including nematodes and tardegradies have been observed doing something similar.

(In fact nematodes and some protists were found in the same sample)

No only that, but they can survive in their dried-up form for as long as 17 years, can be reanimated and then dried again as many as 10 times, can survive in temperatures from -270 to 102 degrees celsius, and can survive being immersed in ethanol, glycerol, liquid helium and liquid nitrogen.

But how do we know all this?

Well.... surprise! It was a white dude, J. E. Vanderplank ("Maverick and Innovator"). Vanderplank was born in what is now South Africa and was a botanist who was really into potatoes. He must have been wandering around Northern Nigeria when he noticed the interesting flies and decided to send them off to his entomologist friend, H. E. Hinton.

Hinton then tested the hell out of the larva, leading to many of the facts above, published in three papers about the insects (which I can no longer access because I no longer have institutional access but if you do you can find it here).

Somehow after Hinton, the flies found their way to the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences where they were honored with their own working group.

There, researchers continued Hinton's work, finding the hows and whys of the extreme survival. They found that exposure to high salinity- as happened when the puddles started drying up- triggered the insects to rapidly synthesize trehalose, a simple sugar commonly found in hemolymph (insect blood). The trehalose was found to mimic water enough to ensure survival during the periods of anhydrobiosis.

The research group also discovered that P. vanderplanki has one of the smallest genomes among insects.

It is estimated that 2-30 million species of insects exist but fewer than 1 million have been described (written about in the scientific literature). Very small insects and insects from non-Europe and non-the US are frequently overlooked, so there are probably many more anhyrobiotic and other insects that can survive extreme conditions that haven't been discovered yet. Hopefully entomologists will be able to get to them before they're driven to extinction.

References:

Hinton HE (1960). "A fly larva that tolerates dehydration and temperatures of -270°C to +102°C". Nature. 188 (4747): 336–337. Bibcode:1960Natur.188..336H. doi:10.1038/188336a0. S2CID 4260914.

Kikawada, Takahiro; et al. (2005). "Factors Inducing Successful Anhydrobiosis in the African Chironomid Polypedilum vanderplanki: Significance of the Larval Tubular Nest". Integrative and Comparative Biology. 45 (5): 710–714. doi:10.1093/icb/45.5.710. PMID 21676821.

Sakurai, M; Furuki, T; Akao, K; Tanaka, D; Nakahara, Y; Kikawada, T; Watanabe, M; Okuda, T (2008). "Vitrification is essential for anhydrobiosis in an African chironomid, Polypedilum vanderplanki". PNAS. 105 (13): 5093–5098. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.5093S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0706197105. PMC 2278217. PMID 18362351.

Gusev, O; Cornette, R; Kikawada, T; Okuda, T (2011). "Expression of heat shock protein-coding genes associated with anhydrobiosis in an African chironomid Polypedilum vanderplanki". Cell Stress and Chaperones. 16 (1): 81–90. doi:10.1007/s12192-010-0223-9. PMC 3024092. PMID 20809134.

Zadoks, J. C., & Schein, R. D. (1988). James Edward Vanderplank: Maverick* and Innovator. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 26(1), 31-37.

#insect #entomology #bugs #cool bugs #biology #bugblr #ecology #nature #flies

[yesterdayandkarma]

by Ghana Must Go

[queen-shiba]

Safest country for Shiba to live in?

NOT THIS ONE

Either I'm going to Canada to be a productive citizen or I'm moving my ass to Ghana.

[If you're from Ghana, please update me on how things are going over there just in case I need to reconsider my choice]

I will be looking for other countries that I'll feel okay in.

America is not doing it for me. If I do stay, then it's cause I have friends here that I must watch over.

And my cousins and sisters....

Maybe I'll stay for them..