Haiti

Tropical storm feeds growing anger in quake-stricken Haiti

Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Grace forced a temporary halt Tuesday to the Haitian government’s response to the deadly weekend earthquake, feeding the growing anger and frustration among thousands who were left homeless. Grace battered southwestern Haiti, which was hit hardest by Saturday’s quake, and officials warned some areas could get 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain before the storm moved on. Heavy rain also drenched the capital of Port-au-Prince. The storm hit Haiti late Monday, the same day that the country’s Civil Protection Agency raised the death toll from the earthquake to 1,419 and the number of injured to

The History and Future of Haiti: Revolution, Repression, Resistance and Eventual Victory

The history and culture of Haiti is marked by extraordinary expressions of revolutionary struggle and victory, suffering and repression, but always righteous and relentless resistance of the people and their radical refusal to be defeated. The Haitian nation was born in revolutionary struggle, achieving what no enslaved people had done before or after. It defeated its enslavers and other armies and political forces that sought to thwart and negate its national liberation, inspired and assisted liberation struggles in Latin America, and became a beacon of African and human liberation, teaching possibility and achievement against all odds. But the enemies of Haiti, the world African community and human freedom never forgave it and has since its birth worked to divide it, reconquer it, and reverse its instructive and enduring achievement. In a word, their efforts were directed towards rendering it irrelevant, except as a site of imperialist exploitation, name-calling and conversational contempt.

Core Group signals support for Haiti’s designated PM

A key group of international diplomats on Saturday signaled support for Haiti’s designated prime minister in the first such statement of its kind following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise _ a move that surprised many because it does not mention the interim prime minister who has actually been running the country.

Congresswoman Waters, A Fearless Leader Fighting for Us All

For over 40 years, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D), who represents California’s 43rd Congressional District, has fought for marginalized groups and communities like African Americans, women, families and the poor. Now, less than 20 days away from the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, Waters, who is running for reelection, reminds us that there’s more work to be done and she’s putting on her boxing gloves and stepping into the ring to finish. 

Television Academy Honors Tyler Perry

The Television Academy announced that entertainment industry icon Tyler Perry and The Perry Foundation will receive the 2020 Governors Award “in recognition of their unparalleled contributions to shaping the television medium.”

Message from Minister Malcolm on ALD: Silencing the Guns of Pandemic Oppression

Our annual reflective and resistance-focused celebration of the birth and life of Min. Malcolm X, May 19th and African Liberation Day, May 25th, finds us confronting an especially dangerous, difficult and demanding time. It is a taxing time of dealing with two global interrelated challenges: the pandemic of COVID-19 and the pathology of oppression in which this virus and other natural diseases and social sicknesses are rooted and replicated. Indeed, the pathology of oppression is a pandemic itself, i.e., a world-wide disease or social sickness clearly harmful to human life and even the well-being of the world.

Larry Aubry, Lying Down Like a Hill: Still Having Height, Always Pointing Upward

It is the sacred wisdom of our ancestors that a great person lies down in death like a hill, still having height and always pointing the way upward, constantly calling us to the upward paths of our best ideas, values and practices as persons and a people. And so it is with our beloved and honored brother, Larry Aubry, an all-seasons soldier and uncompromising servant of his people, who made transition and ascension, Saturday, May 16, 2020 (6260), and now sits in the sacred circle of the ancestors, among the doers of good, the righteous and the rightfully rewarded.

Black Press of America Celebrates 193 Years of Freedom-Fighting Journalism

“As we deal with some of the most challenging times in modern history, it is important that we understand the significance of the Black Press in reporting on and recording our history,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Chair, and publisher of the Houston Forward Times, Karen Carter Richards. The NNPA is the national trade association representing America’s Black Press.

Black History: Its Meaning, Message and Forward Motion Dr. Maulana Karenga

As we contemplate various ways to celebrate Black History Month, we must ask ourselves how do we pay proper hommage to this sacred narrative we know as Black History?  How do we think and talk about this, the oldest of human histories and about the fathers and mothers of humanity and human civilization who made it? And how do we honor the lives given and the legacy left in and on this long march and movement through African and human history?

Considering King In Critical Times: Daring to Oppose War and Practice Peace

As we weave our way through the daily dose of lies and illusions, hype, hatred and hypocrisy from the White House, we must constantly question and be actively concerned about the relative sanity and real danger of those who continuously fake “imminent threats” and cry wolf to make war, and then try to wash away their sins of savagery with the dishonest indictment and blood of others.

Embracing the Courageous Four: Radically Reconceiving and Reconstructing America

In spite of the forked-tongue talk, doublespeak and patently racist ranting of the pretending President Trump and the White supremacist mob-like cheerleaders chanting hatred at his rallies, we must not miss the fresh, air-clearing and uplifting wind that is steadily rising and blowing our way. It is the transforming force of the voice, views and defiant struggles of the courageous four “freshmen” congresswomen: Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA); Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Not Yet Uhuru, Freedom Interrupted: African Liberation Delayed But Not Defeated

And on this day of memory and marking, May 25th, set aside in 1963 at Addis Ababa by the Organization of African Unity as African Liberation Day, we remember first and pay rightful homage to our ancestors. For they are the way-openers, the path-finders, the original freedom fighters, the layers of the foundations on which we strive to build in good and righteous ways. It is they who lifted up the light that lasts, the spiritual and moral visions and values by which we understand and assert ourselves at our best in the world. And in rightful homage to them, we in the Maatian ethical tradition, as written in the Husia, humbly ask of them every day “Ancestors, give us your hand, for we are bearers of dignity and divinity who came into being through you.”