There is still a desperate need for the black world to coalesce around an affirmative ideology of blackness... Not a political concept of black power, but a soulful concept of blackness that is rooted in its source of power... Africa

What does it mean to you to be black?

By KHALILA NICOLLS
Khalilanicolls@gmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas



THE other day I stumped a politician by asking him a simple question: What is Africa?  The question emerged because he responded to another question I posed, are you African, by saying, "No, I am a Bahamian with African heritage."

So naturally, I pressed, and asked, well what does it mean to have Africa heritage?

He fumbled for a response, claiming that regrettably, he had not done the research to know which tribe in Africa he came from.

He said if he were asked the same question by one of his children, he would say, let us go and research it together.

Being perturbed by my unbridled dissatisfaction, he gave it another go.

This time, he responded with the politically correct answer, speaking to Africa's wealth, in terms of her beautiful and bountiful natural resources and the many venerable world leaders she has given birth to.

The reason I was perturbed by his response was not because I felt he gave a poor answer initially, which he did, or that I was unsatisfied with his answer in the second instance, which I was not.

It was because he seemed not to have understood the question.

What does Africa mean in the context of your identity?

The question completely went over his head.

I was not totally surprised, because when it comes to questions of identity and the study of meaning, many Bahamians seem to be uninterested or simply clueless.

As a street scholar with a professed love for questions of identity, I am often starved for engagement on these questions.

It is a challenge arriving at a common understanding of Majority Rule, because without an interrogation of meaning it is difficult to arrive at a full understanding of one's identity or a consensus of worth.

As a Bahamian, I feel personally slighted, not having had the opportunity within the framework of my state-mandated educational career to interrogate the meaning of Majority Rule or any number of other concepts that are central to my identity.

Needless to say, engaging in the process of inquiry is part of the reason for creating my own platform, and of great interest to me is the idea of blackness and its relationship to the concept of Majority Rule.

The last time I wrote about Majority Rule, I argued that its assumed meaning, a symbol of black liberation in The Bahamas, failed to stand up in the face of scrutiny.

That Majority Rule represented an expansion of our democratic system; the shattering of a glass ceiling for black Bahamians seeking political office; a milestone in political progress, but not a transformation in black consciousness or an ideological awakening of black people.

Evidence suggests that at the time of its coining, our nation's leaders were conflicted in the concept of their own blackness, and the real worth of that identity.

Certainly, our leaders recognised the political power of the black association, but they also accepted that blackness was a political liability.

It was something they were willing to bargain with.

All in all, I suggested, our collective vision of a black nation was ideologically tame, and so too was the impact of the black majority government on the progress of black Bahamians as a collective body.

So what is left to be said?

Lots, because when it comes to understanding our own blackness in a country that celebrates Majority Rule and recognises itself as a majority black nation, I feel our nation's leaders, when they led us into the era of self-governance, failed to set the record straight on a number of important race issues.

First, racial solidarity is not a form of discrimination against white people or some kind of reverse-racism.

Second, blackness does not have meaning only where racial discrimination exists.

Third, to speak about white racial prejudice and how it was used to justify genocide, to disfranchise and dehumanise indigenous people across the globe, and to enrich white people and their generations yet to come is not an act of denigrating white people; it is basic world history.

On the first issue, I need to reflect on another interview I recently conducted.

When I asked the person the meaning of being black, his first instinct was to say, let me see how to answer this without sounding like a racist. He then fumbled on to answer the question in line with the politically correct things to feel and say.

I had a similar encounter when listening to Freddy Munnings Jr on the radio programme Matters of the Heart. He recounted a time when he asked the Minister of Education (he did not specify which one) why Bahamians do not learn African history in school.

The minister replied by saying he did not want to teach racism. Mr Munnings rightly asked what is racist about teaching our children that their ancestors brought the world astrology, astronomy, mathematics and medicine, among other great contributions to world history.

I am with Mr Munnings on this one: what is racist about African pride? What is racist about affirming a black identity?

Why have we chosen to accept the view that racial solidarity is somehow a destructive and divisive concept; that affirming a connection to one's blackness is somehow racist?

It is an apologetic view of being black that black people would be better served to reject.

In January, the Arizona State legislature won its battle to outlaw the Tuscon Unified School District's Mexican American Studies (MAS) programme, on the grounds that it "promotes activism against white people, promotes racial resentment and advocates ethnic solidarity".

Best-selling classics like Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire, and Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow, were banned from the curriculum.

It seems white people still fear that blacks and other subjects of white oppression might one day turn the tables and exact bitter revenge.

In a school district where 60 per cent of the students are Latino, the fears must run high.

But quite frankly, I find this fear to be arrogant, delusional, self-absorbed and downright ignorant, but completely unsurprising.

It is on the same basis of Arizona's objection that a black man would find it uncomfortable to give meaning to his own blackness.

Not wanting to sound racist is a euphemism for not wanting to make white people uncomfortable; not wanting to evoke their misplaced fears.

Whether a black man's racial resentment is real or perceived, warranted or not, he should have the right and the space to feel as he may, and process his own experience, without having to be politically correct about it.

Denying him his right to feel does more to promote racial resentment than allowing him his space to heal.

I think that is worth repeating (and I hope people at Arizona State are reading):

Denying him his right to feel (which includes inquiring into and processing his own experience) does more to promote racial resentment than allowing him his space to heal.

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire states: "Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence," and a "violation of their humanity".

When I spoke earlier about feeling personally slighted, it was this violation I alluded to.

For all of our accomplishments, blacks are still negotiating the right to think, speak and feel for ourselves about our experience of being black.

As a society, we do not have a humanising pedagogy in which students of the former oppressed and oppressor classes can deepen their consciousness of their situation and be responsible for their own liberating process.

The failure of inquiry is one of the primary racial dilemmas of the 21st century, and our blind longing for a post-racial world only exacerbates the problem.

Race is an important means by which people in a post-1492 world are able to recognise, understand and celebrate their collective identity (an identity I must note that predates 1492 by millennia); race has been a great source of pain and is now the basis on which there is need for great healing; race was the mode in which white people established their position of superiority and wealth, and it is the basis on which the former oppressor class must now humble itself.

For all of the post-racial idealism of the Obama age, race is far from being an irrelevant concept.

This leads me to my second contention: The suggestion that blackness only has meaning as a means of political organisation or as an object of someone's oppression, whether in a state of subjugation or resistance.

Basically, the argument goes like this: because we do not believe there is any longer racial discrimination, or because we no longer believe we have to fight for our rights, we no longer need to hold on to a black identity.

It is the "we are one" argument.

The problem is, black people are not mere objects of someone's oppression, and seeing blackness solely as such is a shallow way to conceive of one's identity. Sadly, this is how we have been taught: to identify with each other based on struggle.

That is why, typically, those who feel the struggle is over, celebrate the good fight, but feel little to no need for race association.

They see no fallacy in the concept of One Bahamas. On the other hand, those who feel the struggle continues, see the world more pronouncedly through a racial lens, and experience dissonance in the concept that we are one.

The black identity does not exist only because white people once were the authors of our oppression.

The experience of the Maafa (a term used to collectively describe the history, effects and legacy of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and the various atrocities on African people as a collective) has no doubt shaped how we understand race, but prior to the perverted introduction of the post-Maafa racial construct, there was still a black identity to which black people are inextricably linked.

The reason I say the black consciousness of our leaders, and our nation as a whole, in the era of Majority Rule was skin deep is because it was not an affirmative ideology that defined our blackness; it was a concept of our biological likeness, otherwise known as skin colour, combined with a common experience of oppression under white control and a common political objective.

It was around that identity that black political leaders were able to carve out a black constituency and mobilise the masses.

Many black Bahamians to this day still find it difficult to answer the question, "What does it mean to be black?"

Many black Bahamians still cannot reconcile the concept of being Bahamian and African.

It pains them to assume that identity unless it is qualified, as in Bahamian with African heritage or Bahamian who is a descendant of Africa.

The black experience of the Maafa created in black people such a hatred of Africa and all things African, but to this day, blacks who claim to be liberated have yet to reclaim their mother.

I am no Bible scholar, and usually I avoid Bible quotes, but I make an exception to cite Exodus 20:12, a verse Bahamians are well familiar with: "Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the lord thy God giveth thee."

What about restoring the love for our earth mother?

Despite our discomfort with claiming a "one (Bahamian or African)" identity, there is no conflict of identity or need for a dichotomous relationship.

Think, after all, about our mothers who marry - they take on a new legal name (Bahamian), but they never lose their maiden name of birth (African).

My birth mother, for example, has every right to claim her Gage identity as she does to her Nicolls identity. Her being a Nicolls does not negate her being a Gage. Her being a Gage does not deny her being a Nicolls.

The main point in all of this is how we understand our blackness as black people. I maintain that Chinese people do not hold a concept of being Chinese because they have been caricatured as having slanted-eyes.

An Indian's concept of being Indian is not because of an accent. The recognition of their Chinese or Indian identity is based on a shared understanding of heritage, language, food, culture, history, geography, legacy and the likes.

Black people do not have a consensus of identity, not because no commonality exists, but because we have chosen to deny our very existence.

To this day, we identify with a very shallow concept of self that goes only skin deep.

It is a very lose concept that can be easily manipulated to serve political objectives, which is what happens most often when politicians play “the race card”.

Given the complex legacy of slavery and colonialism, it is apparent that skin colour is highly problematic as a mode of identity.

As inter-racial realties continue to shape our world, skin colour will be more and more an irreconcilable mode of identity.

But none of this negates race.

There is still a desperate need for the black world to coalesce around an affirmative ideology of blackness.

Not a political concept of black power, but a soulful concept of blackness that is rooted in its source of power, Africa.

Any concept of blackness that lacks a consciousness of Africa lacks its primal essence and true source of power.

In the Bahamas and across the globe, black people as a collective community are in a dire state.

We need to piece ourselves back together and heal our wounds in order to secure the progress we wish to see.

Paulo Freire once asked the question: “How can the oppressed, as divided unauthentic beings, participate in the pedagogy of their liberation?"

Real progress of the mind, body, spirit (and pocket book) must entail growth in an understanding of our very blackness.

It must entail inquiry into understanding who we are. In African tradition, to know thyself is one of the most noblest callings.

In 1967 our leaders, already enculturated into the new world order, were unable to champion this calling.

In 2012 our leaders are in no better position.

Humbly, I issue the call.

* Pan-African writer and cultural scholar Noelle Khalila Nicolls is a practising journalist in the Bahamas.

Her column Talkin Sense explores issues of race, culture and politricks.

February 09, 2012

tribune242

Bahamas: Conspiring to destroy Haiti: Past and present

By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net:


THE transformative power of the spoken word has been proven throughout the centuries, but one wonders if declaring the Bahamas a Christian nation through constitutional declaration and use of the public pulpit is sufficient to make it actually so. The nation's claim to Christian credentials is probably most questionable when sifting through the public perception of Haiti and Haitians.

The word "Haitian", once a symbol of black liberation, has morphed into a derogatory insult in the Bahamian psyche, parallel only to the likes of racial epitaphs like "nigger" or "boy".

Former Member of Parliament, Keod Smith, furiously refuted claims of his Haitian heritage probably as a strategy to preserve his political career. He could very well have manufactured signs reading: "Not a Haitian."

Young Haitian-Bahamians go to great lengths to hide or subdue their Haitian heritage to increase their chances of gaining basic social acceptance.

Unfortunately, it is clear that public perception of Haiti is heavily influenced by what Sir Hilary Beckles, pro-vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), calls "imperial propaganda". It is no surprise that some people like Tony, a Bahamian with Haitian heritage, are rendered speechless by the "ignorance" of people.

Someone like Tony could wonder where the context, the perspective, the truth went in the debate about Haiti. It is telling how an American news reporter says with full self-assurance, "Haiti's government was incompetent at best, even before the earthquake", and some Bahamians believe this to be a fact. There seems to be no formulae to break the stranglehold on the Bahamian psyche from this lingering colonial mentality.

Haiti was battered by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake striking 10-miles off the coast of Port-au-Prince on January 12. The quake reduced the capital to rubble and dust. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives; almost as many lost their limbs in a wave of sweeping amputations, and even more lost their homes and livelihoods. Just two years ago, Haiti was battered by a series of four hurricanes in the space of two weeks. The damage was so severe that there was enough international goodwill for Haiti to secure $1.2 billion in debt relief from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors.

In the wake of the quake, the international community is pushing for total debt relief for Haiti. Most of the country's remaining debt is owed to Taiwan and Venezuela.

Just last week, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) plan for Haiti, including debt relief, a $20 million donation for the health sector and further investment funds.

"Haiti has no debt with Venezuela, just the opposite: Venezuela has a historical debt with that nation, with that people for whom we feel not pity but rather admiration, and we share their faith, their hope," said Chavez after the meeting of ALBA foreign ministers.

The case of Haiti is far from black and white, although it is easy to apply labels such as ungodly, corrupt and backwards to account for its status as the most economically impoverished country in the western hemisphere.

Superficially, it would appear that Haiti is doomed, even cursed, but the natural disasters in Haiti's history barely match the political, socio-economic earthquakes that have been engineered by external forces for centuries; those seeking to undermine Haiti's ability to be a beacon of light for African people.

Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor during Haiti's revolution, said of his colonial empire: "My decision to destroy the authority of the blacks in Saint Dominque (Haiti) is not so much based on considerations of commerce and money, as on the need to block forever the march of the blacks in the world."

In the minds of some, this endeavour has been successful, but there are those who see through the disparity, into the hope that is Haiti.

"Wake up Bahamas! Ours is a country that has been built -- for literally the last 30 years -- on the strength, sweat and hard work of our Haitian brethren. Many of us are descended from immigrants, recent or old, from Haiti, even though we may neither know nor admit it," said Dr Nicolette Bethel, COB lecturer and former Director of Culture.

Haitians may flee their country in search of better economic conditions, but their national pride is largely unshaken. Prosper Bazard has lived in the Bahamas for 28 years. The biggest thing that makes him proud to be a Haitian is the knowledge that his forefathers fought the heavily equipped French army with their bare-hands and won.

"Another thing that makes me feel proud is we are a nation that can fight for a living. We don't have so much money but we can manage to find a way to live. Even if a Haitian is very poor, they will find a way to survive. He is not going to steal. We believe in hard work, we prefer to suffer and not steal," said Mr Bazard.

Haiti is the second free republic in the western hemisphere following the United States, but the first black republic in the post-colonial world. This might appear to be an historical footnote, even ancient history, but on the contrary, all progress in the modern world, particularly for people of African descent, rests firmly on the back of the ten-year war waged by Haitian freedom fighters for self-rule from the French. The legacy of Haiti and the contribution of Haitians in shaping liberation consciousness in the modern world is more like a keystone, indispensable and perpetually relevant.

"Bahamians probably do not know much about Haitian history. I don't think history is high on the list; neither is context. Haitian people have been demonized as beggars of the Caribbean and I think that is what is ingrained in our psyche," said Fred Mitchell, opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs.

"It is nonsense, because first of all they bring their talents, expertise and skills as migrants to the country. They helped us to build our country," he said.

Few Bahamians learn about the Haitian revolution, or the history of Haitian-Bahamian relations, because the standard Bahamian school curriculum does not feature Haiti. Not surprisingly, with its roots still grounded in the colonial world view, "Discovery Day" is still celebrated in the Bahamas after all. This is despite the fact that next to the United States, Haiti probably has the largest external influence on the Bahamas, for good and for bad.

Even Dr Gail Saunders, scholar in residence at the College of the Bahamas and former Director General of Heritage, said she was not well versed in Haitian history. She welcomed the opportunity created by this latest tragedy to spread awareness of Haitian issues and history. (Next week in Insight: an in depth look at the Bahamas and the world without Haiti).

"When Haiti became independent, no country on earth recognized Haiti, and they did so for practical reasons. Haiti was a slave economy and the slaves threw off the slave masters. Haiti's present day economic woes began back in 1804. Haiti did not just become like it is now," said Dr Eugene Newry, former Bahamas Ambassador to Haiti.

"They won their independence militarily. Psychologically it has a different effect than sitting around a table with someone coming back from London with some papers saying you are free," he said.

The audacity of the Haitian revolution was an unbearable embarrassment to the French. It was threatening to the slave-based economy of the United States, which failed to live up to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. In its first constitution, Haiti declared it would grant automatic citizenship to any person of African descent arriving on its shores. The world decided to starve the population with economic embargo and isolation instead of recognising its freedom.

"It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history. Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have primary interest in its current condition. The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate. Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation -- a crime against humanity," stated Sir Hilary Beckles, in an article widely published by Caribbean news agencies.

The UWI is currently convening a major conference on the theme "Rethinking and Rebuilding Haiti" to dig beneath the rubble of public perception.

In order to gain access to international trade, in 1825 Haiti agreed to pay France reparations of 150 million gold francs in exchange for recognition and an end to the embargo. French accountants and actuaries valued land, animals, former slaves, and other commercial properties and services. Haiti borrowed money from American Citibank to service this debt. It took more than 100 years to buy its recognition in the international community.

While the reparations debate for African descendants is scorned by the West, and avoided by the descendants themselves, France stands proudly having lived large off the modern equivalent of $21 billion in reparations for losing land and human property while enslaving Haitians.

"Haiti was crushed by this debt repayment. It descended into financial and social chaos. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance," said Sir Hilary Beckles.

At the 2001 United Nations Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, the Caribbean made strong representation for France to repay Haiti. The Caribbean Community (Caricom) reaffirmed this call in 2007, during the anniversary celebrations for the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a strong proponent of this initiative. His tenure was heralded as a return to order for Haiti, until he was finally escorted out of the country in 2004, under armed guard by American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials. Haiti became a United Nations protectorate.

Thousands of government officials under the Aristide-government were removed from office during the questionable coup. The Americans claim they gave President Aristide a plane ride to the Central Africa Republic, where he now lives in exile. President Aristide maintains he was kidnapped. The new Haitian government, still in power, wasted little time to withdraw the request from France to repay the reparations money.

America pundits in the mainstream media rarely, if ever, talk about America's involvement in Haiti, although America invaded the country in 1915 and occupied it for almost 20 years to secure its economic interests. Americans oversaw the introduction of foreign land ownership to the Haitian constitution, never present since independence. During their rule, foreign economic interests in the country grew, and racial stratification between blacks and mulattos became more ingrained, akin to segregated American states.

Under American rule, Haitian financial reserves were managed from Washington. Debt servicing accounted for 40 per cent of Haiti's annual income, primarily to service American financial institutions. America's grip on Haiti's finances was so tight that they withheld the salaries of government officials on one occasion to coerce them to sign a bilateral agreement without modification, according to historians.

Even after the Americans left in 1934, they did not return control of the national treasury to Haiti until the 1940s. The only stable public institution they left was the US-trained Haitian military. A series of military coups followed for the next few decades, ending with the infamous Duvalier dynasty.

Former Haitian president François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, said to be born in the Bahamas to a father from Mayaguana and mother from Haiti, is blamed for many of Haiti's current social and economic troubles. During his 14 year rule, he established the infamous secret police force, the Tonton Macoute, and crippled the Haitian national army.

He embezzled money and was responsible for political assassinations. His presidency was supported by the United States because of his anti-Communist views. He was succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who was just as oppressive.

Much of Haiti's debt, still being serviced today, was accumulated under the Duvalier regimes. Rather than being used for national development, much of the borrowed money was squandered and outright stolen.

Massive deforestation in Haiti was another source of instability, particularly for the natural environment. Most commentators attribute this to the "poor masses" cutting down trees to burn fire wood. Dr Newry said this is only half of the story. Haitian poverty has contributed to deforestation in modern days, but, he said, the problem began with the French, Spanish and other European countries, cutting down forests to grow coffee, sugar, tobacco and other products on a commercial scale.

In the 1940s, Haitians also endured the violent anti-Voodoo crusade of Catholic missionaries. During this period, called the Rejete massacre, they killed Voodoo priests, destroyed sacred temples and burned forests with centuries-old trees that were honoured by the Haitians.

Haiti's history of triumph and tragedy is too complex to unravel in one article. External forces were at play at the same time destabilizing internal forces that were at play. The internal forces are not to be absolved. The hands of many Haitian nationals are no doubt stained with the tears of many in the starving masses, from corrupt practices, mismanagement, incompetence and warfare. These conditions appear to be ingrown defects of ancient and modern governmental systems, as many nations well know. But to take a simplistic look at Haiti, as many seem inclined to do, and pass judgment on the nation without understanding or perspective is to be blinded by ignorance.

As the international community convened in Canada late last month to begin forming a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Haiti, many in the Caribbean community were watching keenly with an eye on the past and an eye on the future. A major international conference is to be held in the spring to further the strategic planning agenda.

The heart of the matter is: Haiti is inextricably linked to the Bahamas, the Americas and the modern world. Those who know this to be true are watching closely as the world mobilizes behind the latest international fad that is Haiti. As donor fatigue will inevitably set in, those who know will be the ones still standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Haiti, embracing Haitians as their brothers and sisters, wondering if the rallying cry, "not without Haiti" will ever light a fire in the Bahamian psyche.

February 01, 2010

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Bahamas Blog International