Archives pour la catégorie Black leaders
Winnie Madikizela Mandela, South Africa’s ‘Mother of the Nation (1936-2018)
Laisser une réponse
2 years ago, on april 2, 2018, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, prominent anti-apartheid activist and the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, died. She dedicated most of her adult life to the cause of the people and for this was known far and wide as the « Mother of The Nation ». She waged a courageous fight to liberate Black South Africans from repressive white-minority rule. She was arrested several times for her efforts, including being sent to prison in 1969 for 17 months, where she spent the majority of the sentence in solitary confinement.
Stokely Carmichael, from Black power to Pan-Africanism…
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was born a slave and was named Isabella Baumfree. New York, the state where she lives outlawed slavery in 1827 but Soujourner’s master didn’t care. He would not free her, so she ran away. When she was 46 years old, she decided to start her own campaign against slavery. She could not stand to see her people suffer any longer so she changed her name to Soujourner Truth. She chose that name because she planned to travel from place to place to tell the truth about slavery. Sojourner carried her anti-slavery message throughout th North, she spoke to anyone who would listen and to those who wouldn’t. Soujourner was often beaten for speaking out against slavery but this brave woman could not be stopped. She had a mission. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that outlawed slavery, but the southern states did not recognize the law until they were defeated. After the civil war, Sojourner fought for black equality and women’s rights and she dedicated her life to opening the doors of freedom for all people.
Rest forever in Peace Tupac Amaru Shakur
It’s been 20 years that Lesane Parish Crooks aka Tupac Shakur left us.On a trip to Las Vegas to attend a boxing match, Shakur was shot while riding in a car driven by Suge Knight on September 7, 1996. He died six days later, on September 13, 1996, from his injuries at a Las Vegas hospital. Shakur was only 25 years old at the time of his death. Besides all his incredible talent, Tupac was an exemplary human being. He risked his life to try to reach the youth and all of us really, with truth. He showed us his best, flaws, his sensitive and angry sides all in an effort to show us a truth and what a real human being is. His songs are filled with passion, pain and pure genius. he rebeled against the control system.He was a great person who had the courage to express himself, he always try to uplift others with consciousness. May his soul rest forever in Power…
Rosa Parks
Parks was a lifelong believer in self-defense. Malcolm X was her personal hero.
Pedro Camejo (1790-1821)
Pedro Camejo, better known as Negro Primero, or ‘The First Black’ ( 1790– 1821) was a Venezuelan soldier who fought with the rebel army during the Venezuelan War of Independence. The nickname of Negro Primero was inspired by his bravery and skill in handling spears, and because he was always in the first line of attack on the battlefield. He was also the only officer of colour in the army of Simon Bolívar.
Patrice Émery Lumumba (1925-1961)
Patrice Émery Lumumba (1925-1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba’s government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis. He was subsequently imprisoned and murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States. To fellow Africans he was a hero -the man who had won his country’s independence from the Belgians. But for the secret services of the western powers he was a threat. It was at the height of the Cold War, when the superpowers of both East and Western blocs were competing for spheres of influence in the New Africa. Congo was vital to Western interests because of its vast mineral resources. The West believed Lumumba was pro-soviet and would open the door to communist control of this mineral rich region. CIA agent Larry Devlin received 100,000 dollars from the Agency along with telegraphed instructions to make the “elimination of Lumumba ”the “priority goal” of his covert action. Within months of becoming Prime Minister, Lumumba was ousted by an army coup, inspired by the West. It was led by a turncoat colonel, Désiré Mobutu who would be the Congo’s military dictator for the next 30 years. In early December 1960, Patrice Lumumba and two of his Ministers were killed by members of the Belgian Secret Service. After Killing him, his enemies, cut his body and put it in acid all that was left was some teeth and the skull. None of the murderers -or the men behind them -has ever been indicted, but Lumumba’s voice still echoes throughout Africa today. Patrice Lumumba is considered by many as the greatest African Leader of all time
François Mackandal
Francois Mackandal was a charismatic and skilled leader of a slave revolt in Haiti in the 18th century. Mackandal was probably of West African or Congolese origin brought to St Domingue as a slave at the age of 12, it is believed he was sold to Lenormand plantation.
As an adult he escaped the plantation and leader a revolt against French slaver owners and plantations. He was supposed to have a lost his left hand and part of his left arm while a slave. How this happened is often disputed, some sources claim his arm was crushed in an accident with a Sugar press and then was cast out from the plantation, other historians he fled the plantation after being sentenced to 50 lashes (which would kill most people) but the plantation owners where loath to admit a slave had the skill and brains to escape his white captors. The anthropologist Mark Davis puts forward the theory based on carefully filtered oral history that Mackandal had been well educated before he was a slave and could both read and write Arabic Fluently, a possibility due to the contact of Arab slavers and traders in the Congo and West Africa, that Mackandal was intelligent and well versed in herbalism is without doubt. 12 years after fleeing the plantation Mackandal united a group of ‘Marows or Maroons in the remote mountain areas of Haiti to fight the French. The Maroons where a mixture of the surviving American Indians and escaped black slaves. The native population the Tainos had been nearly exterminated by first Spanish and then French colonization, introduced diseases and slavery. The Maroons combined both Native American wilderness skills with Africa agriculture and skills brought by the escaped slaves of many nations. Mackandal became a guerrilla leader uniting various isolated communities in the mountains to strike back against the colonists. He used slaves still working on the plantations as intelligence network while his Maroon forces would raid and burn plantations. Mackandal and his guerrillas used local plants to produce poison which was then given to slaves to poison their masters. This was an excellent terror weapon and the French authorities feared that many Land owners would leave Haiti because of the risk of poisoning, it is estimated that Mackandal’s forces killed over 6,000 during the 6 years of insurrection. On 20th January 1758 Mackandal was sentenced to be burnt at the stake, a common punishment for slaves, following his betrayal by a female slave who was tortured after capture. Mackandal was renown for escaping capture and many stories surround his death, some say that he escaped as the robs binding him to the stake were loose due to the stump of his left hand, other stories are of a mythical nature claiming that his soul escaped the flames and his spirit still wanders Haiti. Many of these had root in the fact that Francois was a Voodo Houngan or priest and often prophesied that one day the slaves would win their freedom, he also claimed that his was immortal. Mackandal in many ways sowed the seeds for the later success of Toussaint Louverture who was to lead the first successful revolt of against European Colonialist powers.
As an adult he escaped the plantation and leader a revolt against French slaver owners and plantations. He was supposed to have a lost his left hand and part of his left arm while a slave. How this happened is often disputed, some sources claim his arm was crushed in an accident with a Sugar press and then was cast out from the plantation, other historians he fled the plantation after being sentenced to 50 lashes (which would kill most people) but the plantation owners where loath to admit a slave had the skill and brains to escape his white captors. The anthropologist Mark Davis puts forward the theory based on carefully filtered oral history that Mackandal had been well educated before he was a slave and could both read and write Arabic Fluently, a possibility due to the contact of Arab slavers and traders in the Congo and West Africa, that Mackandal was intelligent and well versed in herbalism is without doubt. 12 years after fleeing the plantation Mackandal united a group of ‘Marows or Maroons in the remote mountain areas of Haiti to fight the French. The Maroons where a mixture of the surviving American Indians and escaped black slaves. The native population the Tainos had been nearly exterminated by first Spanish and then French colonization, introduced diseases and slavery. The Maroons combined both Native American wilderness skills with Africa agriculture and skills brought by the escaped slaves of many nations. Mackandal became a guerrilla leader uniting various isolated communities in the mountains to strike back against the colonists. He used slaves still working on the plantations as intelligence network while his Maroon forces would raid and burn plantations. Mackandal and his guerrillas used local plants to produce poison which was then given to slaves to poison their masters. This was an excellent terror weapon and the French authorities feared that many Land owners would leave Haiti because of the risk of poisoning, it is estimated that Mackandal’s forces killed over 6,000 during the 6 years of insurrection. On 20th January 1758 Mackandal was sentenced to be burnt at the stake, a common punishment for slaves, following his betrayal by a female slave who was tortured after capture. Mackandal was renown for escaping capture and many stories surround his death, some say that he escaped as the robs binding him to the stake were loose due to the stump of his left hand, other stories are of a mythical nature claiming that his soul escaped the flames and his spirit still wanders Haiti. Many of these had root in the fact that Francois was a Voodo Houngan or priest and often prophesied that one day the slaves would win their freedom, he also claimed that his was immortal. Mackandal in many ways sowed the seeds for the later success of Toussaint Louverture who was to lead the first successful revolt of against European Colonialist powers.
Steve Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977)
Steve Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. In 1968 he cofounded the all-black South African Students’ Organization. The organization’s message spread from campuses to the general community, and in 1972 Biko helped found the Black People’s Convention. He was arrested many times for his anti-apartheid work and in 1977, died from injuries while in police custody.
blackisreallybeautiful 