Tag Archives: slavery
Antebellum Movie is an Ominous Warning to Black Americans
If you are a Black American and you haven’t seen the movie Antebellum, I suggest that you do because it will remind you of why you shouldn’t be complacent about the rise in White Nationalism. Organize and arm yourselves now because as you party and play video games many racist Politicians and racist Radio pied-pipers are openly advocating for America to return to the glory days of the Antebellum South. It won’t be long until the events of this movie comes to pass.
This is not a movie review or a critique but merely a personal analogy and if you think I’m “reaching” then you don’t know history. We all experience things in different ways and different things are created so that different people will get a different experience or enjoyment from them. Antebellum is simply a movie that uses historical truth to deliver a message in a creative way. I did not enjoy the movie because I hate all movies with slave topics. However, I did find it intriguing, which is why I chose to analyze the messages that the movie is attempting to deliver.
Antebellum is billed as a horror thriller and it is played in three non-chronological Acts. The main actor is popular singer and actor, Janelle Monae and since most of the plot centers around her character I will focus on her experiences. The first Act introduces us to Janelle as a Cotton-picking slave who, along with dozens of other Black people/slaves are stuck in what appears to be a Confederate Army camp. White men in Confederate army clothes patrol the camp and oversee the slaves as they pick and process Cotton for shipping.
The cruelty of the soldiers towards the slaves is stereotypical of everything we’ve ever seen, read, or heard about slavery in the American South during mid 1800s. They kill, brutalize, and rape the slaves at will and the slaves are made to labor and serve them while being forbidden to even communicating among themselves. All the slaves seem to look up to Janelle for some reason, as if she had some sort of secret supernatural powers that is yet to be unleashed or maybe it was simply because she was the General’s concubine. Whatever she was, we could tell that she was just as scared as everyone else.
As Janelle laid next to the sleeping General, probably after her nightly raping, she stares hopelessly into the darkness. The scene cuts to Act two and surprisingly, we see that Janelle is now in modern day. She is not only happily married with a husband and young daughter; she is an accomplished author and academic professor too. Her life seems as hectic and rushed as any modern professional’s life would be as she tries to keep a happy home while faithfully pursuing the professional success offered to her through her belief in the American Dream.
She jets off to Louisiana to attend the launch of her new Book but while there she is kidnapped by a couple of white people; one of them is the Lieutenant of the Confederate Army we saw before. At this point I thought of giving up on this movie because I thought it was corny as hell. 18th century ghosts are kidnapping Black people and returning them to slavery? This can’t be the horror that the movie was billed to contain, I thought but continued to watch.
Act three opens with Janelle back in the Army camp the day after we left her in Act one. New slaves are brought into the camp and the cruelty continues. Then after one of the new slave girls hangs herself Janelle and another slave decides that it was time to escape. She waits for nightfall and after getting raped one more time she also waits for the general to fall asleep. It was at this point that the horrific plot of the film was revealed. A cell phone rings and the General gets up, goes outside to his horse and answers the phone. The rest of the movie is the thrilling part but I’ll let you experience that for yourself
When the General’s phone rings it is here that most people will realize that the movie is not set in the past; it is all taking place in modern days Louisiana. You see, the General and all his Confederate soldiers are white racists engaged in Cosplay but while their costumes are fake, their victims and actions are 100% real. They are racists who believe in the greatness of the Old South Confederacy before it was defeated and dismantled by the Northern Union. This is the America that racists refer to when they say they want to Make America Great Again (MAGA).
All the Black people are captives from everyday society. They are upper-class professionals, Black activists, and people who white people either envy or don’t like. They were lured, kidnapped and held captive to play the role of slaves and servants. The camp they were held in was part of a vast heritage resort fittingly called Antebellum, which is a real term that refers to a romanticized view of the pre-Civil War South when white life was only regulated by minimal government, minimal laws, and white Christian values.
If you as a Black person watch this movie and you do not see the potential for something like this happening in America given the current hyper racialized atmosphere, then I suggest that you go back to sleep. Go back to thinking that Trump and his MAGA movement involves you. Go back to thinking that white people are actually afraid of you instead of seeing that their supposed fear of you is just an excuse to get away with murdering you. Go back to your partying, Video Gaming, and drug smoking.
Antebellum is an ominous warning to Black Americas that if Trump gets re-elected and white nationalism continues to grow unchallenged, you will soon begin to notice the disappearances of a lot of prominent Black people from society. These “trouble-making” Black people will end up as captives in concentration camps ran by white militias but while your concern will grow, law enforcement won’t do a damn thing about your fears because a lot of them are white supremacists themselves.
Kanye West, Slavery Was Not A Conscious Choice
This is a message to Kanye West and the growing number of mentally deranged Black people who believe that slavery was always a choice. You all lack perspective and to experience the psychologically crippling trauma that our ancestors had to endure before you can talk about choice.
Recently in an interview, popular rapper Kanye West, stated his belief that slavery was a choice. This outrageous statement is only the latest in a series of questionable moves on his part. Many people who heard his comment on TMZ might say that Kanye’s statement is being taken out of context.
So, to be fair, he did indicate that the time period (400 years) was “in his opinion” what made slavery a choice. This still doesn’t let him off the hook. In fact he needs some basic education in Black American history and psychology.
I argue that slavery was not a conscious choice from the perspective that Life’s base instinct is to survive. Choice is a subjective thing. It is not always yes or no, black or white, life or death. Human choice is based on perspective and ranges from instinct to rational thought. Rational thought depends on precedence and hindsight. If none of the two is available then instinct takes over. Instinct is based on Life and Life will always choose to survive.
The first slaves knew that they were destined for hardship simply because slavery was not a new thing. Tribes warred against each other all the time and those who weren’t killed were made slaves by other tribes. This is precedence however, trans-Atlantic slaves had very little knowledge of the hardships that North America would bring.
Once in North America slaves freed themselves over time as they gained knowledge and perspective of their surroundings. Of course, there was the ultimate choice of death but the instinct of life is to live to fight another day. It exists outside of choice just like any other mechanism of Life.
This instinct is called the “Fight or Flight” response and if it didn’t exist many of us wouldn’t be using the benefit of hindsight to say such things as; “I would have escaped or I would have chosen to die” because you wouldn’t exist.
Instinct is being used to prolong the duration of physical and mental slavery in North America, the West Indies, and South America. This condition is maintained by several tactics which include; lack of knowledge, fear of consequence, religious indoctrination, and dis-unity.
It is well documented that during slavery, Black people were forbidden from reading, writing, and education. Slave masters knew that knowledge in any form develops the mind. Therefore, any form of learning was as dangerous as being alone with a slave with a knife in his hand. For that reason, they kept their slaves uneducated and dumb.
The stability of the plantation was at risk of falling into dysfunction if slaves begun to develop rational thought. Slaves were also kept from knowing anything about life outside the plantation, which maintained a psychological condition of uncertainty as to how unsecure they actually were.
Fear of consequence is one of the most crippling psychological conditions. It was a tactic used all throughout slavery and is still being used against us in present day in the way cops publicly execute Black people on a daily basis. Fear of consequence is the process of inducing fear into people by showing them examples of what will happen if they act out of line or disobey the rules.
Slave masters used numerous measures of cruelty to control their slaves. Slaves were gathered to watch as runaways and disobedient slaves were either wipped senseless, lynched, castrated, or dismembered. Pregnant women had their stomachs cut open and their unborn babies were crushed.
Family members and even children were sold away to other slave owners and women were raped and impregnated on a regular basis. Where in today’s society does such brutality exist to test our so called “choice”? Hindsight has black people f’ed up because not even the Jews are dumb enough to say they knew that not fighting back would result in them being gassed.
Religion was used as a tool to pacify slaves. It was a form of education that slave masters had no fear of sharing because it teaches that a master and slave relationship is an acceptable thing in the eyes of God. Slaves were encouraged to accept their suffering, as it was the will of God as punishment for non-belief.
The quest of a slave therefore, was to develop deep faith in God as God would forgive and reward their suffering once they die and go to heaven. Credit religion for helping Black people to endure 400 years of trauma but it’s time to dismiss this tool of slavery.
Black religious people today are still mentally enslaved because they still cannot see that religion is merely a tool to understand human nature. Choice will exist when a more powerful comforter is provided for Black people to depend on. Dohgon Spirituality aims to be that alternative.
Kanye West, understand that there were numerous slave revolts throughout the time of slavery. Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman are just a couple of examples. In the Caribbean and South America there was the Garifuna, the Maroons, and many others, some of whom never made it to the slave auction docks. Instead, they killed the sailors and took control of the slave ships.
Toussaint Louverture in Haiti defeated the French to gain freedom almost 100 years before American slaves gained their freedom. Come on man! Wise up and stop the self-righteous foolishness that conservative ideology is twisting your mind toward.
I see you and many others like yourself who they have recruited to whitewash history by telling us that we have choice while they continue to heard us by Instinct and Desire. Black Consciousness won’t let it happen because there are other ways to achieve prosperity without selling one’s Soul.
Moors Not Black Or AfRAkan
The Moors say that they are neither Black or AfRAkan.
The Pan-Afrakan Diaspora consists of several religious and cultural groups. The main groups are Christians, Muslims, Hebrew Israelites, Moors, and Spiritual Agnostics. Some groups acknowledge their AfRAkan ancestry and some don’t. Those who choose to deny their AfRAkan ancestry either do so due for religious blindness, for monetary gain, or through plain ignorance of Life. The Moors are the one group who deny their AfRAkan ancestry for all three reasons.
The Moors believe that they are not bound by country, continent, or race. Instead, they say they are indigenous to the entire world having inhabited the planet since all landmasses were one some 150 million years ago. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, we wish all humans would think that we are all one people as part of the Life entity. Unfortunately the Moors are being hypocritical because today they would rather enter into a pact with world powers and live by systems based on Gods, kingdoms, and money rather than recognize the greater order of existence.
The mission of the Moors is to establish themselves as placeholders among the world elite. In order to achieve their goal, they must first prove their worth to those who now control organized religion as well as military and economic power in the world. Furthermore, they must prove that they are neither Black or AfRakan but are members of a non-extinguished Moroccan empire. The Moors believe that most Black American slaves were no more than prisoners of war while others were aboriginals along with the indigenous tribes of North and South America.
Historically, the term Moor refers to a loose-nit, non-racial group of people based in Morocco, North Afraka during the Middle Ages. Originally Arabs from Turkey and the Middle East, the group diversified racially as they conquered Afrakan and European territory to grow into a formidable empire. Their biggest conquests were in Portugal and Spain, which they inhabited and ruled for hundreds of years. Eventually the Moors were beaten back into North Afraka where they slowly faded in power and influence.
During the Middle Ages, the Moors were well respected for their geographical knowledge and navigational abilities. Early European explorers sought their help in all their endeavors into Afraka and on the High Seas. During the slave trade in which Afrakans were captured and brought in chains to North and South America, the Moors were known to have immunity from slavery. Some historians even believe they actually participated and were financially rewarded for their work in capturing Sub-Saharan Afrakans for their European partners.
Proof of Moorish treachery occurred in Jamaica, West Indies, where as part of a war truce, large groups of runaway slaves known as Maroons made agreements with the British to capture and return other runaway slaves to the plantations. As reward, the British labeled them Moors and gave them their own land. Fortunately, there were more ethical Maroons who refused the British treaties and kept the figh going against both the Moors and the British.
The Moors of today channel their beliefs from Nobel Drew Ali, a Black American Muslim who established the Moorish Science Temple of America in Chicago in 1914. Nobel Drew Ali was thought by his father, a Moroccan immigrant, that all African Americans were Moors who belonged to the Moroccan empire and by simply claiming themselves to be Moors, they would automatically gain Moroccan citizenship and posess all the rights of the Moroccan Empire.
Credit the Moors for gaining and revealing hidden insights into the inner workings of the system of corporations known as countries that have been governing world affairs since the turn of the 19th century. Just know that systems created by men based on Desire and Ignorance are all destined to fail. Petitioning the unethical to get a seat at their table just means that you want into their wicked and unethical systems that praise Gods, Kings, and Demons.
Human creativity is capable of much greater things. That is why Dohgons are gaining knowledge to increase our understanding of Life so that we can build a better interface for human cognition. We know that the Great Spirit that is the Universe is the creator and our Soul is experiencing a voluntary excursion into this hostile environment known as Life. We incarnated as Black people for a reason so to cop-out of this challenge is not an option. We know the truth of our existence so we will never deny our Afrakan identity and ancestry for unethical religious, political, economical, or cultural beliefs again. We will make Life a better place.
The History Of Black People In Nova Scotia, Canada
As Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary, the contribution of Black people in helping to shape Canadian history must never be overlooked. This brief synopsis of the history of Black people in Nova Scotia was therefore put together to mark this special iteration of Black History Month in Canada. For a more concise account please consult the Nova Scotia Black Culture Society.
Originally designated by the British and sought out by many free Blacks as well as run away slaves as a place of refuge, Nova Scotia turned out not to be a very friendly place for Black people. They made it a home however and through the resilience of their AfRAkan Spirit, are still proud residents today.
It has been determined by historical accounts that Black people of AfRAkan descent have been living in the Province of Nova Scotia since the early 1700s as either French servants or trade workers. However, much of the details of their lives were not properly documented. It was only after the English took over from the French in 1763 that records of the arrival of other Black people started to appear in public records
Those records show that several hundred Black people migrated to Nova Scotia in the 1760s along with a group of white settlers known as Planters. The Planters were a large group of settlers who came from New England after the British gained control over Nova Scotia from the French in 1763. The British gave the Planters free land in order to populate the vast expanses of empty territory so that the land did not fall back into the hands of the French.
20 years later, between 1783 and 1785 over 3,000 Black people came in as part of the Loyalist migration from the United States. The Loyalists were settlers who were loyal to Britain during the War Of Independence. The Loyalists were mostly White but also included many of their slaves, former slaves and indentured servant Blacks who had joined in the war after being promised freedom by the British.
Most of the Black Loyalists began their journey from camps in New York City. After the War of Independence the Loyalists feared retaliation from the Americans so the British decided to grant them help by relocating them to other areas of the British Empire. The Americans fearing that other slaves who did not fight in the war would also seek freedom along with the Loyalists so they ordered the British to compile a list of all the Black people who had helped them in the war so that they could expel them from America.
The British compiled an extensive list of Black Loyalists and their families which was then compiled into a book known as The Book Of Negroes. Only 3 copies of the book exists and contain all the surnames of the Black Loyalists who left New York for Europe, England, Africa, and Nova Scotia. Original copies of the book can be found in Washington, England and Nova Scotia.
Upon arriving in Nova Scotia, the Black Loyalists were scattered by the British throughout numerous towns and villages in the territory. The Black Loyalists attempted to integrate into existing communities but found out very quickly that they were not welcome, not even by their fellow white Loyalists who still saw them as inferior and not deserving of the opportunity to pursue a life of unbridled freedom.
The Black Loyalists created their own settlements and segregated communities but without sufficient farmland of their own they had to depend on white settlers for their survival. This put them at odds with whites who threatened and harassed them constantly. Fed up with their situation, the Black settlers directed their anger toward the British for reneging on their promises to give each Black family a plot of land of their own. However, several years of complaining only resulted in a few of the high-ranking former Black solders getting land of their own.
Eventually, the Black Loyalists managed to gather up enough financial support to send representatives to England to plead their case directly the monarchy. Unfortunately, in England their petition fell on deaf ears but while there the representatives had a chance encounter with a contingent of Afrakans from Sierra Leon, West Afraka. The Afrakan representative sympathized with the plight of the Black Loyalists and promised to provide land for them in Sierra Leon; all the Loyalists had to do was secure their own transportation.
The Black Loyalists then presented another proposal to the British Monarchy and the Monarchy agreed to send ships to transport all the Black Loyalists who wanted to leave Nova Scotia and go to Sierra Leon. Back in Nova Scotia, the thought of going back to Afraka was mixed. Some welcomed the chance to return to their true homeland and some hated the idea. Subsequently, a large percentage of the Black Loyalists made their way to Sierra Leon in 1793.
Seven years later, in the year 1800 another group of Black people known as the Maroons also relocated to Sierra Leon from Nova Scotia. The Maroons were former Afrakans originally brought to the island of Jamaica as slaves but who had escaped off the plantations to live in the mountains and caves of the Island. The name Maroon is thought to have originated from the Moors, an Arab influenced cultural and religious group that once dominated North-West Afraka.
In Jamaica, the Maroons had formed Guerrilla groups that became a serious threat to the stability of the Island’s economy. They raided plantations on a regularly basis and assisted other slaves to escape and join their ranks. After years of being embarrassed by the Maroons the British recruited Maroon spies then successfully captured the top Maroon leader resulting in the surrender of the largest group of Maroons.
The British then decided to relocate most of the captured Maroons off the Island in order to diminish the threat of reprisal. So in 1796 they shipped 550 Maroons to Nova Scotia. Most of the rebellious group of men, women and children were settled in the township of Preston. After a few years, most of the Maroons found jobs as builders and laborers but they never got along with the other Blacks.
The Maroons had different religious practices and customs than the Black Loyalists who were a mixture of various denominations of Christianity. Subsequently, the Maroon demand that the British send them back to AfRAka. The British agreed and in the year 1800 most of them were boarded onto ships and sent to Sierra Leone.
From 1812 to 1816, the last major influx of Black people entered Nova Scotia. They came during and after The War of 1812 between the US and Canada, which was still a British colony at the time. This was the war in which the White House was disrespectfully burned down by the Canadian forces. The war was a terrible loss for the United States but it enabled thousands of former slaves to escape into Canada.
The British again offered Blacks freedom and land in Canada for helping them during the war and thousands of Blacks accepted the offer. This new group of free and former slaves moved into Windsor, Ontario and Nova Scotia. In Nova Scotia, they settled in the Halifax areas of Preston, Hammonds Plains, Beechville, Porter’s Lake, and Lucasville Road.
Throughout the period of their arrival in Nova Scotia up until slavery officially ended in the United States, Black people lived under the constant fear of being kidnapped by slave hunters and re-sold back into slavery in the US. Slave hunters often roamed the forests and coastlines of Nova Scotia on foot or in boats searching for Black people to could capture and earn a bounty on.
After slavery officially ended and Black people felt at ease to pursue their dreams they were still routinely exploited as cheap laborers. In the early 1900s, when the Coal Industry in Nova Scotia wanted to undercut the wages that Black labor unions built up, they recruited immigrants from the West Indies. Those West Indian communities still survives to the present day in Whitney Pier, Glace Bay and New Waterford, Porter’s Lake, and the Lucasville Road, as well as the Windsor area.
Racial tensions between Blacks and whites in Nova Scotia made headlines time after time throughout the 1900s. One famous incident happened in 1945 when Viola Desmond, a Black entrepreneur was arrested and thrown in jail for deliberately dis-obeying the whites-only sign in a movie theater. The incident sparked riots in Nova Scotia at the time but it was nothing compared to a similar act of civil disobedience by Rosa Parks, which occurred 10yrs later in the United States. That incident was seen as the spark of the American Civil Rights movement.
Black people of Nova Scotia have never laid down to racism and discrimination. They have fought injustice every time, especially when the government tries to bulldoze or relocate Black historical settlements for commercial or modern development purposes. They’re treated like the Native Indians; they get abused, disrespected, and mistreated then only get apologies, not compensation for the injustices they have to endure.
Even so, Black Nova Scotians are proud of their deep and rich history. Many have risen to prominence within Canadian society in Politics, Education, Business, and Law. Today, people of Afrakan descent are continuing to immigrate to Nova Scotia, which ensure that Black people will continue to maintain a strong influence on Canada’s East Coast.
ANKH’s Brain
Imagine ANKH as a Brain trapped in a paradox. This paradox is a space between awareness and consciousness. Awareness is a state of the Mind while consciousness is a state of the Brain. Can we be conscious yet not be aware? Yes, we can. This is evident by the mere fact that we do not understand what we are. Furthermore, I believe that the development of Life is currently stalled in that paradox, perhaps voluntarily.
Ask yourself, have we really taken the time to understand ANKH/Life? I know we have always sought answers to why we exist, selfishly omitting the rest of creation. In our quest we have created gods and other concepts that attempt to give reason and meaning to our existence. Why then are we not more advanced than we are now? Why do we still stumble around in ignorance? Could it be that we are searching in the wrong place?
There are trillions of Life forms on this planet, a small percentage of which are conscious. The level of consciousness varies from species to species with Humans being the most conscious. Humans are therefore classified as the vanguard species. Our attempt to understand our existence is only the beginning of our self awareness.
To date, all of our premature attempts at awareness have left us disillusioned. Some of us live by blind faith, believing that everything that happens to us is the will of our imaginary gods. Some of us strive for power and domination over everyone else by adopting a state of mind called “survival of the fittest”. And finally, some of us are so lost that we function with complete disregard for all Life including our own.
Fortunately Life understands that the best way to ensure survival is to diversify. That is why there are so many races of people. Do not be unwise to think that any one is more important than another. As AfRAkans we may appear to be at the bottom of the rung but we are Life’s first Human. All other races of Humans diversified from us. If you check it you will see that only AfRAkan DNA has the least mutation.
History has revealed that Humans have become a self destructive species. No other species kills for sport, greed, animosity, covetice, or malicious intent. Does that not create a default condition of fear in Humanity? Do you trust everyone you meet given the evidence of un-justness that is continually exhibited in society? Life may not be fully aware yet but it is a Brain and it is collecting information, learning, and growing albeit at a very cautious pace.
The problem with the pace of human development is that every time Life/ANKH has gained a level of awareness Humans have used the knowledge for destructive purposes. Thousands of years ago Humans migrated out of AfRAka. Colder temperatures in the northern regions of the planet affected certain internal processes in us which resulted in dramatic physiological and emotional changes in our behavior.
Where we once functioned with fairness, equity, and accountability we gradually changed to selfishness, survival of self, and a kill or be killed mentality. They say “necessity is the mother of invention”, well these new humans learned that survival required better weapons, bigger armies, and systems of obedience to those who garner the most power and influence.
When these Humans began to return to AfRAka it was to gain knowledge from their ancestors but eventually their selfishness and pomposity lead to systems of savagery, exploitation, and colonization. Life/ANKH recoiled in astonishment. They continued to engage in countless wars that have killed tens of millions. When Life gained knowledge of the atomic structure of matter, humanity used it to build the Atomic bomb and destroy 3 million more people in a split second. Again Life/ANKH recoiled in astonishment.
“Conscious Life” is a description of an idea. ANKH is its name. It is a way of referring to the state of consciousness if Life were a living entity. As a collective entity Life can be considered a Brain that we should be helping to develop and grow into one day becoming aware. This can only be achieved through the diversification of knowledge. If however, we choose to continue on a self destructive path Life will have no choice but to “rinse and repeat” as it has done many times before.
