My Africana Blog

 George Foreman passed away recently. He was well-known  as a top professional boxer and business man. He was also an ordained minister. So My tribute to Mr Forman will focus on religion.  I came across the following information about Mr Foreman in my Africana scrap album, dating back to the 1990s. Did you know he wrote a book entitled GOD IN MY CORNER? This is the Black Expressions catalog description of the book culled from my Africana scrapbook: “ Foreman shares life lessons, stories of personal faith and how God has has been an integral part of his life  all along in this compelling memoir.”Source: Black Expressions. Now that he has passed, we should all try to read this beautiful memoir. Please contact your public library or buy it from Amazon. May He Rest In Peace.  

 I first met Dr Awoonor at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, West Africa, when I was an assistant t professor and  a very junior faculty member in the English Department. Dr Awoonor joined  the department following a sabbatical leave granted to him by Stony Brook University where he had been teaching for several  year as a  distinguished professor.

 This blog entry is based on an article in Yahoo!Life for November 5, 2024 written by Serafina Kenny. Naomi Whitehead , an African-American centenarian is now the oldest living person in the US. Her Life story:She was born in Georgia on September 26, 1910. She said in a New Castle interview in 2023 “ I ‘ll live as long as the Lord lets me.” Her philosophy of life and Lifestyle: she attributes her longevity to the following factors: 1. Working hard. Worked on a farm for several years: plowing, picking cotton, and tobacco. Always on the move. 2. Religious woman: Religion plays a great role in her Life. Her grand son describes her as “ a Godly woman. She is truly Blessed.” 3. Never smoked, never used alcohol or tobacco. God Bless Madam Naomi Whitehead.  Please check my previous blog entries on longevity in Ghana and in our own family.

 When I was appointed director of the Paterson Free Public Library ( the first black person to occupy that position since the library was founded in 1885 as NewJersey’s first  chartered public library), one of the first things I did was to plant a tree on EARTHDAY in April of 1993. The tree was purchased for the occasion by the Friends of the Library, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Rumania, then president of the Friends of the Paterson Library. The tree was planted in the south-east corner of the employees parking lot , near the  Children’s Department at the Main Library on 250 Broadway. The maintenance staff , their supervisor, Roger, myself and a pastor from one of the churches were present. Before the tree was planted, I talked about our responsibilities  to save the Earth as God’s  creatures, and to continue to ensure that the planet we call our home will remain sustainable and livable for future generations.  I also poured libation asking the anim...

 Two teenage girls in Mississippi fought against discrimination. In 1966.  Clyde Marie Perry 17 and Emma  Jean Wilson 14, intergrated their Grenada Mississippi schools and successfully fought against expelling pregnant students like themselves.

 Rosa parks had been credited with starting the civil rights fight.       But    BUT. According to the historical record. , a young  a 15-year old teenager CLAUDETTE COLVIN  in 1955 was arrested for refusing to give up her Montgomery. Alabama bus seat to a white passenger, nine months before Rosa Parks. The leader of  Colvin’s local NAACP Youth     Council chapter did the same. “ she wanted change.” 

 I always listen to Christmas music in December. I did so in 2023. One particular song caught my attention. That’s why I am blogging about it. On Sunday, 24th November 1984, a group of famous musicians gathered in London and recorded “. Do They Know It Is Christmas Time” to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. While the philosophy behind the entire project is noble, and noteworthy, some parts of the lyrics is not commendable. I am particularly sad and disturbed about that part of the lyrics that question whether they “ Do they know it is  Christmas Time?”. With all due respect, Ethiopians, and the Coptic Church has had a long  Christian tradition since the First Century. It was said that some of the Apostles brought the Christian religion to Ethiopia after the Resurrection. Some Coptic priests even claim that the Arc of the Covenant is in Ethiopia. I once saw a program on television whereby  Ethiopian Coptic Christians traveled several miles from their rural ou...

 This blog is about Pierre Toussaint. The piece is culled from my Africana scrap album. Here is Pierre Toussaint’s story. 1. He was born on July 27, 1766 in Saint-Marc, Artibonite Saint- Domingo ( now Haiti) 2. He was brought to New York City as a Slave in 1807. 3. He worked as a hair dresser, barber, philanthropist, and helped many immigrants and refugees from Haiti. 4He also helped to raise money to build the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mulberry Street. He built a school for black kids. 5 June 30, 1853: Toussaint died at the age of 87. He was buried at St Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue.  6. 1996: Pope John Paul 11 declared him venerable - a step 2 on his way to becoming a full-fledged saint. Bibliographic salute Jones, Arthur: Pierre Toussaint: A biography

 This blog is based on an article that appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine on 08/10/2023 written by Sarah Kuta entitled “ Who was the Enslaved Child Painted Out of this 1837 Portrait?”. It is an important piece because it also features an African-American enslaved teenager called Belizaire, who was nearly lost to history and to posterity. He was almost obliterated from the historical record. Here are the facts: 1837: Frederick Frey, a German-American businessman and banker who lived in Louisiana commissioned an artist to paint a portrait of his 3 white children: Elizabeth, Leontine, and Frederick, Jr. It also included their enslaved black boy Belizaire, a 15 -year old caretaker of his children. 1822: Experts believe that Belizaire was born in 1822.The Frey family purchased him when he was 6 years old. In 1856, along with his mother Sally, they sold him to the Evergreen Plantation. During the Jim Crow era, someone in the  Frey family painted over Belizaire, erasing him from th...

 This blog is based upon information from Wikipedia. It is about injustice, racism, using rape as an excuse to executive an innocent Blackman, a common occurrence in the Jim Crow South. Willie McGee was arrested in 1945, convicted and sentenced to death for raping a white woman. People across the USA and the world over thought the trial was unfair, and that  the sentence was a miscarriage of justice. Several celebrities, including William Faulkner, Bella Abzug, Paul Robeson, Jessica Mitford and others protested, and tried, unsuccessfully to prevent his execution. Willie McGee was executed on May8, 1951, after several trials. Bibliographic salute For more information on the Willie McGee’s case, please read: Heard, Alex: The Eyes Of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex and Secrets in the Jim Crow South. Harper, ISBN: 978-006128-4151.

 I have already posted o blog entry on the above subject. I would also like to update the information. I have just read the autobiography of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings entitled IT TAKES A WOMAN.  In the book , she stated that in1966, when Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown in the 1966 coup by the Army, the United States ambassador to Ghana, an African-American, and a classmate of Dr Kwame Nkrumah at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, visited Achimota School, where she was then a student, and supervised the burning of Dr. Nkrumah’s books, portraits, pictures and other related materials about Dr. Nkrumah. This a stunning revelation and a sad event for Ghana. All Africanists scholars should try and read some of Dr. Nkrumah’s  books, to be listed as a blog entry later.

 In the West, especially in the USA,  Africa is always associated with bad things: famines severe droughts, pogroms, coup d’etas, dictatorships, authoritarianism, diseases , and even cannibalism. People always refer to Africa as the “ The Dark Continent” - thanks to Joseph Conrad. People  in the West hardly think that Africans live long and productive lives; that some of them are in fact SUPERCENTENARIANS. The Guinness Book Records, has never included any longevity records from Africa. To be fair, Wikipedia has a list of centenarians across the globe on their website, the list includes two Africans. Osman Nuhu Sharubutu of Ghana, a Moslem cleric is still alive at the age of 103 years. A Nigerian chartered accountant. a Mr Akintola Williams Is also listed . When Sister  Andre, a  French nun died   at the age of 118 this year, she was described   As the world’s SUPERCENTENARIAN. She was then  the longevity  record holder.  The dictionary d...

 This blog is about an outmoded custom in the village Kasa in Ghana. My grandmother told me about this strange custom.   In modern Ghana. and across the world, families usually post obituary notices in newspapers, in online websites  devoted to death culture. When my cousin Mrs Esther Akoto Boateng, affectionately referred to in our family as Auntie Serwaa passed at Abetifi- Kwahu, a few years ago, I received an ornate obituary brochure from the family at home.   My grandma told me of a peculiar custom. A little known custom or ancient practice about how to break the news of the death of a family member to a child in the family. Telling a child about the passing of a relative can be tricky and traumatic I guess we are probably thinking about the psychological effect of such a traumatic event in a traditional  African household. In the village, people believe that a dead family member can reck havoc to the psyche of a child. And so a simple way of announcing...

 Today’s blog has been culled from my Africana scrap album. It is  a short history of a school for Black children in the City of Paterson, New Jersey, which operated from 1855 to 1873. In January 1855, a colored school was established, Miss Eliza M. Hasted being the first Principal- a position she retained for nearly twenty years, or until the school was disbanded. The sessions were held for a few months in the Godwin Street ( colored) M.E. Church; then in the Goetschius schoolhouse in Division street, when the East Ward school vacated those premises. In September, 1857, it was removed to Clinton street schoolhouse. The location was so remote as to create much complaint from the parents of the children, and with good reason.  At length, in 1873, the Board of Education bought for $4,000, four lots in Godwin street, south side, between Washington and Bridge, for a new edifice. But December 27, 1872, the Board had voted that the colored children would attend the schools in t...

 Today’s blog entry is culled from my Africana scrap album. This is about a series of poems that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about slavery. I came across  an EBay list of an original copy of the poems in an Ebay auction several years ago. It was listed on EBay for $1, 900. Details of the book are as follows: Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Title of the Book: Poems On Slavery Publisher: John Owens Place of Publication: Cambridge Date: 1842 Longfellow was criticized for writing a series of poems s out Slavery. His response was that he felt it was a shame to deal with selling human beings. You can read the poems on slavery for free at Project Gutenberg <www.gutenberg.org> The 1842 poems on slavery includes: The Good Part: That Shall Not be taken Away The Quadroon Girl The  Slave in the Dismal Swamp; The Slave Singing at Midnight; The Warning; The Witnesses; To William E. Channing. You can also read the poems online at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : a Maine Histor...

 This blog will explore traditional names in Ghana, West Africa. . Both the Akan-speaking peoples and some Ewe tribes have  similar naming patterns.  Traditionally among the Akans, names are assigned to children , depending on the day they were born, and their gender. Only male and female genders are recognized.  If the child is baptized as a Christian, he or she will be given a Christian name. Catholics usually add a confirmation name. Finally, the child will add the last or surname to the mix.. For example Kofi David Amoabeng. Or Kofi Samuel David AMOABENG, if the child has been confirmed as a Catholic.  With this protocol in mind, one can easily categorize traditional Akan names as follows: Day of Birth                                 Gender                                         ...

 Nana Amponsah: “ We call upon our ancestors  long gone-Awo Amma OboAtaa, Nana Kofi Asare, Nana Ampem Darkoh, Awo Abena Obiyaa, and Awo Adwoa Oforiwaa- to protect this child.” Audience: “Wie, wie, wie”   Nana Amponsah: “ Let him be strong and healthy and wise and wealthy. “ Audience: “ Wie, wie, wie “ Nana Amponsah: “ Let all  his enemies perish. Let all his enemies be ashamed. Let all his enemies suffer.” Audience: “ Wie, wie, wie “ Nana Amponsah: Grant him a long life of peace, prosperity, and plenty.” Audience: “ Wie, wie, wie “ After each utterance, Nana Amponsah poured the schnapps unto the floor slowly, methodically, spiritually, and reverently until the glass was completely empty. The audience  responded in unison with: “ Thank you, Nana Kofi Amponsah, for your gracious and eloquent prayer.”          Bibliography: For further information about Libation, please consult the following books. NEHUSI, Kimani SK:  Libation: An Afri...

 Below is an example of a libation, culled from my  complete, yet-to-published multicultural literary fiction, entitled THE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER. Set in colonial Gold Coast of West Africa, the novel spans the years from the 1940s to the post independent Ghana of the 1960s. The story chronicles the life of Kwame Nyame,  the protagonist ,from his scandalous birth and early life among illiterate  friends and family to his dream of earning a Ph.D.in the United States. I am seeking literary agent representation for this novel, as well as a second novel about slavery in progress, entitled: Back To The Ancestral Motherland. The context for the libation pertains to a family event. One of the characters, an erudite elderly leader and patriarch Nana Kofi Amponsah has been summoned to pour libation before performing an “ outdooring”  ceremony for a  child born in the family.  Filling a glass with imported schnapps, Nana Kofi Amponsah concluded the outdooring cer...

 LIBATION is a form of prayer. A traditional prayer rooted in African traditional religion. We believe In ancestral worship. We also believe that our dead ancestors are always looking out for our well-being and they are around spiritually to help us in times of need. And so before we engage in any special event, on any special occasion, such as a wedding, a funeral, an audience with the chief, during a durbar or an important festival that calls for our ancestors to protect us from harm or evil, libation will be poured.   You can use water to pour libation, but the preferred liquid is gin, schnapps or palm wine.Libation in Ghana, among the Twi-speaking people,  has its own protocol or formula. It follows a specific pattern or code.  First, The person performing the libation has to  acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being. Secondly, he calls on Mother Earth “Asare Yaa” to bless the occasion.  This is followed by summoning the lesser gods, usually the fam...