Sunday, March 16, 2008

Today was a full day of enriching experiences. We started the day worshipping with the Athlone Church of Christ. Athlone is a former Colored Township outside Cape Town. The minister there is Peter Manuel. We were honored guests for the worship services there, and Ernest Cato, the minister traveling with us, was the guest speaker. We enjoyed the singing and fellowship tremendously. I met Peter Manuel in 1995. He has worked diligently with this congregation and it has grown into a very strong and active congregation with many outreach programs in the local community. The most ambitious work that they are engaged in is a missionary outreach to the nation of Namibia.

Namibia is an almost forgotten country bordering South Africa to the Northwest on the Atlantic Ocean. It has a small population and is relatively poor. They gained their independence from South Africa in 1990 and its capital city is Windhoek. It is named after the Namib Desert.

 

Following worship services, we took a ferry to Robbin Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 17 of his 27 years in prison. We had the unique experience of visiting the cell where he stayed, and I was able to actually enter and close the bars in one of the single cells. The brief experience of such a small space with no toilet or other amenities except a thin mattress on the floor was quite chilling. We toured the group cells, and our tour guide was a former prisoner who told us about the harsh

South Africa is the Land of Ubuntu. When challenged to build a new nation following the end of Apartheid, Nelson Mandela challenged the nation to embrace the spirit of Ubuntu. This challenged all people Black and White to work together to craft a better future for everyone. The result is that the people of South Africa ask all visitors with a warm smile, "How do you like our new South Africa?"

Our community at iZania is inspired by the spirit of Ubuntu - an African concept of unity and sharing with other people that celebrates the success of others because I can only become the person I am because of who you are. This concept is important in a highly connected world built on the kindness of strangers. Ubuntu refers to the spirit of our community.

For the next ten days I will be traveling with a group of people from the USA representing the South Africa Outreach Program, a missionary outreach group formed by my wife and me in 1996, during the three years that we lived in South Africa. We have been helping disadvantaged people in South Africa and assisting with cultural exchange visits and church growth for over 12 years. This is the 4^th group that we have hosted on a trip to the motherland of Africa. I will be sharing our experiences in my blog post. Please check daily, or subscribe to this blog to receive my daily updates .

Friday, March 14 

                                         

We gathered from places far and near at our rendezvous at Dulles International Airport in

I am thinking of a New Black Nationalist Agenda in a very different way. I am not thinking of this new movement as a separatist movement, or a confrontational win-lose type of outcome. You see, the agenda is present before our very eyes. It is multi-faceted, and most powerful in its effectiveness to mobilize Black people to act in our self-interests. I have observed that our interests are not very different than others. It is our outcomes that suffer from a great disparity. These outcomes can be improved if we collaborate around our strengths. By the way, we all stand to benefit. When we do well as Black people, we contribute to the advancement of all America. Not in some pie-in-the-sky kind of way, but in practical terms on the ground.

The Pew Research Report and many like it are reflections of a powerful reality. Whether the results are articulated on the street corner, in the living rooms of our homes, on a public stage by Bill Cosby, via syndicated radio by Tom Joyner, or on national TV by Tavis Smiley; whether a discussion by the talking heads that appear on CNN, and NPR, on syndicated Black talk radio, and the traditional mouthpieces of the Black community like Al and Jesse, The NAACP , Urban League, 100 Black Men, the Panthers, UNIA-ACL, NBLC, or The Nation of Islam, or Corporate offices with glass ceilings -- these voices are shouting in unison all the elements of the New Black Agenda.

I believe it is possible to find resonance in these voices to craft and

Here is an article and commentary from the TransAfrica Forum that is worthy of close reading and consideration.  More than anything, if you agree, please contact the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Leaders of the African nations affected have protested this invasion of their soverignty in the name of the War on Terrorism.  If our African brothers and sisters protest, we must join them to stop this ill-conceived military presence in Africa.

Our protest should be no less loud than the protest against the injustices against the Jena Six.

September 27, 2007

***Distribute widely***

CALL TO ACTION: STOP AFRICOM

Tell the Senate Armed Services Committee to Reject Military Command on the Continent of Africa

TransAfrica Denounces Confirmation Hearings for General William Ward

On the morning of Thursday, September 27 the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services will convene confirmation hearings that will include the nomination of Army General William E. Ward as chief officer of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

TransAfrica Forum, the nation’s premier African-American foreign policy organization, states its opposition to the formation of AFRICOM, and thus the confirmation of General Ward. AFRICOM is the Bush Administration’s latest effort to militarize foreign policy and aid. AFRICOM is the proposed permanent command structure that will be located on the African continent to launch global

Below is a commentary published by Kinetics -- Faith in Motion  that suggests the “blogosphere has supplanted traditional civil rights organizations. . .” 

At the risk of attack, I will advise caution in rushing to this conclusion.  It is true that grassroots “viral communications” via the Internet sparked a tremendous response to the issue that was largely ignored by the mainstream media.  I agree that this informal reaction -- as in the Greensboro sit-ins that helped to spark the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s – is a demonstration of how powerful we can be when mobilized in our self-interests.  To truly supplant the day to day work in the trenches that these organizations have been doing for decades, these modern-day clarion calls have to be converted to sustained efforts.

We have shown that we can respond to “lightning.”  We can react like lightning rods to Bill Cosby’s comments, to the Rodney King and O.J. Simpson trials.  My question is this, Can we sustain an effort to support the economic initiatives of Black entrepreneurs – every day?  Can we sustain the efforts of parents to keep their children in school and raise the level of performance – in every school?  Can we sustain the outcry in Newark, NJ to rid our neighborhoods of crime and drugs – every day?  Can we mobilize the political power in our hands and vote for Black politicians that are committed to our issues – in every election?

Can we be more that reactionaries?  What are the thousands