CHICAGO – One of the largest events focusing on African culture will return to Chicago as the must-attend event of the summer. Africa International House (AIH) will present the 20th Annual Chrysler Financial African Festival of the Arts on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4 – 7, 2009, in Washington Park, at 51st and Cottage Grove. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The African Festival of the Arts celebrates 20 years of Africa and Africans throughout the Diaspora and especially in Chicago. Washington Park, located a stone’s throw from President Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood, will be transformed into an African village filled with artists and artisans, music, dance, drumming, the exotic aroma of African cuisine and more than 250,000 festival-goers seeking to experience the continent and culture of Africa.
This year’s theme is “Traditions, History and Legends,” which, according to Festival Producer and Africa International House President Patrick Woodtor, is indicative of the cultural influence of Africa from ancient times through present day and beyond.
“This year’s Festival represents 20 years of our mission to educate our audiences about Africa, the cradle of all civilization, while celebrating her significance and impact on mankind,” Woodtor said.
As always, the Festival offers something for everyone. At the heart of the Festival is the African Marketplace featuring more than 300 artists and vendors with a variety of African and Afrocentric wares including fine art, artifacts, crafts, fashions, jewelry, masks, collectibles, baskets, beads, fabrics, textiles, museum quality African art, furniture, household goods and gift items.
Additionally, the fine arts, film and quilting pavilions will have an array of offerings. The Children’s Pavilion will be filled with activity to entertain and educate young festival-goers. The Health and Wellness Village will be filled with activities focused on maintaining optimal health and fitness. The Spirituality Pavilion will explore ancient belief systems and the roots of religion.
Festival favorites such as the Drumming Village and the Bank of the Nile Food Court will keep festival-goers in Washington Park all weekend long.
The entertainment line-up will include performances by world-renowned jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, South African songstress Lorraine Klaasen, vocalist Julia Huff, musician Booker T. Jones, R&B legends the Ohio Players, Congolese touring ensemble Soukous Stars, the first US tour of the Cuban group Los 3 de la Habana, Spirit dance troupe, and more.
Festival tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. For tickets, sponsorship opportunities and more information, call (773) 955-ARTS (2787) or visit www.africanfestivalchicago.com.
The mission of Africa International House is to serve as a center that exposes and educates all people to the individual works and collective contributions of African cultures.
Native American farmers taking a break during the harvest. The harvest is a very spiritually signicant period worldwide, where people give thanks to the Gods and their ancestors for the food that will sustain them throught the dry and/or cold season to come.
Native Mid-Summer Festival
Among the native tribes residing within the region now known as the Southeastern U.S., a very important ceremony takes place during the time when the first corn ripens. It begins the new year for these tribes and is celebrated with ceremonies that generally last either four or eight days. The ceremony is called he Green Corn Ceremony and is also known as Busk (from the Creek Indian word poskita, or “to fast”). In fact, fasting was is just one of the rituals involved in the ceremony. On the first day of the ceremony, everyone gathers in the town square of the host village for the opening rituals of the ceremony, which begins with a big feast, a necessary preparation for the fast that follows. Interestingly, none of the dishes include any of the newly ripened corn. This shows the reverence that is held for the corn by these traditional cultures.
To illustrate just one of the many misunderstandings European colonizers had regarding native cultures, a traditional drink is ingested by the men as part of a ritual purification rite. This drink is brewed into a medicine, similar to tea, and looks black like coffee. For the native cultures, the color white symbolized purity and taking the drink purifies the individual, this drink is therefore referred to as the white drink. The European colonizers referred to the drink as the black drink, based on its color.
This highlights an important cultural distinction. For cultures that practice some form of traditional spirituality, certain things are sacred. What is sacred may differ between traditional cultures but an individual coming from one traditional culture to another can recognize and will respect what another culture holds as sacred, if for no other reason than the desire for other cultures to respect what you hold sacred. The lack of recognition on the part of the European colonizers as to why these natives called a “black” drink white shows their lack of spiritual understanding.
The ingesting of the white drink is done in conjunction with many of the events that take place within the host village. Most of these events are held in a plaza in the center of the village. The purity of the plaza has to be upheld as well. It is kept very clean, children are not allowed to wander into the plaza and any dog that did is often killed. The plaza was a performance space which held the ceremonial dances and speeches by elders who encourage everyone to forgive the past years’ transgressions and honor their cultural obligations.
Another important ceremony that occurs during Busk is the rekindling of the sacred fire, seen as a representation of the Sun on Earth, in the town square and throughout town. The sacred fire of the village is maintained continually. It is understood in the culture that as the year goes on and peoples fail to live up to their obligations and violate rules or break taboos, the sacred fire becomes less and less pure. It is at this time that the sacred fire is extinguished and all of the fires in the town are extinguished. This was seen as a representation of extinguishing the past year’s transgressions.
After cleaning the hearths where the fires burned, the sacred fire is then lit. People renew their vows to honor their obligations to each other, to their culture, their ancestors and the divine world. They then light their personal fires from the sacred one after a huge feast. This feast is preceded by days of fasting during the ceremony, after the ceremony begins with a feast. The period of fasting is generally between one and two days. The men are to hold strict to the fasting while children, women and the elderly are allowed to eat certain foods during prescribed times. With a pure, sacred fire burning brightly, the final ceremonial feast features the newly ripened first corn. It was followed by dancing and activities to celebrate another year. The people feast with the fire in their minds and hearts.
Sofkee Comeback
Many people across the U.S. enjoy grits as a regular part of their diet, unaware of its traditional history. In the native villages of the Creek Indian tribes, correctly called Mvskoke, Seminole and by other tribal names, it was customary for each village to have a large pot of food on the fire for any visitors to eat their fill when they arrived. Such is the hospitality that we see throughout traditional cultures around the world. In these villages the pot would contain sofkee, the original grits. A select variety of corn was used for this dish and because of modern agriculture this variety had almost gone extinct.
At this point in time, traditional cultures around the world are in the rebuilding phase. For the Mvskoke people, their Food Sovereignty Initiative is just one aspect of this rebuilding. It is the goal of their initiative to eliminate their dependency on the system that was built from the wealth of their land. The focus is on providing food and health needs through sustainable agriculture and cultural investment. To achieve these goals, the Mvskoke have turned their sights on their ancestors and the rich heritage of knowledge that allowed their ancestors to survive thousands of years.
One example of this traditional knowledge that was lost on colonial minds is that in the preparation of sofkee, the corn is soaked in water and wood ashes. This process makes the corn more digestible and releases niacin, an essential vitamin. Europeans who adopted the corn diet, but not the addition of alkaline ashes, suffered from a vitamin B deficiency called pellagra into modern times. This resulted in the modern requirement that all grits be enriched, although this problem had been solved long ago by our ancestral cultures.
Current Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative projects include a community outreach to empower local farmers and ranchers, a community food project and a youth/elder sharing program. One key project that has assisted with the saving of the sofkee corn is the MFSI seed bank. These projects are centered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma and extend throughout the tribal nation. Traditional foods and recipes are used in the programs Tribal Elderly Nutrition Services and the Meals and More program which adds an educational component about the foods for those being served. Guests are even welcome to come early and assist in the preparation to learn the preparation techniques. It seems that “southern hospitality” predates the “modern” south.
Every human is born, grows older and dies. What each does during the time they are alive in this world depends on their perception of the circumstances they face. How the individual perceives their situation will lead them to make decisions based on the outcomes they desire to have. We should all be very aware of individuals and organizations attempting to, or having succeeded in, manipulating our perception of a given situation. An individual can be deceived in various way, even by themselves. Before we get to some of those examples we need a good understanding of how somebody’s miss-perceptions can affect their and others lives. An example of two clashing perceptions is often portrayed in the consumer media. It is the man and woman who disagree as to whether or not they are lost. In this scenario, while both are adamant that they are right, one is wrong, despite the conviction of their perception. If the man was wrong, there is no telling how far in the wrong direction he will go. Only when he knows he is lost, or has an accurate perception of the situation, can he then adopt the approach necessary to find his way.
Now, for people within the consumer culture who are subject to its mass media, let us consider how the things that capture our attention affect us. Beginning with the things that are outside of our attention, simply put, these things do not affect our perception. It is the things that command our attention the most that has the greatest effect on our perception. This understanding provides insight into the relevance of the mass media in people’s lives. One example is the recent concern that too many households would be left without television access because of the conversion from analog signal (antenna) to digital signal (antenna plus digital converter). The television is an important tool for impressing opinions upon an individual’s perception until that person adopts those opinions or opposites ones.
Regardless of our sources of information, when our perception of a thing or situation does not correspond with reality, its like having bad directions. While we are thinking we are making the correct turns and progressing, we will only get to where it is we need to go when our directions correspond with the actual path that will take us there. This is true when going some place physically, cooking a meal, solving a math problem, reasoning out a logical solution to a problem, and even in the spiritual field when we approach our ancestors or the divine world there are guidelines we must follow to be successful. Additionally, the human being suffers from the need to imagine possible outcomes of a situation. They then decide what to do while under the influence of their desire for a certain outcome. This is when the man who is lost refuses to listen to his wife and insists that he is not lost because of his desire for being right. To combat this we must guard against making emotional decisions, which are based on such desires or our fears.
A young Man test out one of the many weapons used to oppress his homeland. The soldiers in front are attempting to enlist him to assist in that oppression.The soldiers may not realize that, at the same time, they are the oppressors and the oppressed. Photo by Baashu Tutsanaii
It is unfortunate that because of this human condition, the consumer culture uses mass media to alter the public’s perception of certain issues in order to manipulate support for a particular agenda. An example of this is the way people’s perceptions of traditional culture have been altered while living with the consumer culture that has been built by colonial societies. It is the perception many “modern” people share, thinking of the various cultures around the world that live in harmony with nature as uncivilized. In fact, these are the only people not contributing to the destruction of the earth’s environment. The reason that humans do contribute to destroying their own environment is a mass case of altered perception that began over 2000 years ago. The establishment of colonial rule all around the world was preceded by altering the perceptions of groups of people. These people were led to believe that others around the world were different from them and deserved to be subjected to their control, often by violent means. Thus began the invasions, subjugation and subsequent educating of people into the consumer culture.
Colonial powers still use this method today, in their attempt to maintain military supremacy. In order to maintain their armies, they need soldiers. A basic concept behind the colonial politician’s current strategy to gain soldiers is to impress upon the individual a desire to be a part of military service. This strategy gains a percentage of the total they need but clearly not enough so they employ additional strategies. The most successful strategy in America is for the government to provide money for an individual to attend college in exchange for years of military service. Considering how much emphasis is put on education, this is a very successful technique for getting recruits. Another aspect of this strategy is that a proportionally large number of these recruits come from families who can’t afford the high cost of a college education. It may sound like a conspiracy that the majority of military recruits come from middle and low-income households, but this is just because the majority of people in America don’t earn much more than $25,000.00 per year. The “richest” nation in the world has a lot of poor people.
Many recruits who join the military directly after high school have done so based on the need for college tuition money, the desire to serve, or another strategy that is becoming more commonly used. This strategy has several approaches, all of which are meant to appeal to teenagers, familiarize and excite them about military service. I recently witnessed an event at Benito Juarez, a local high school in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, where large pieces of infantry equipment were parked outside the school for students to get in, climb around and perhaps “feel the power” as they stood holding the machine gun on top of one of the armored vehicles. With many of the students at this event being descendants of the indigenous peoples of this continent, their ancestors must be saddened. The indigenous cultures of Maanu or Turtle Island (now called the Americas), millions of which have been murdered by colonial armies, now look upon their surviving descendants and see them tricked into pulling the machine gun trigger, like the one used in the massacre at Wounded Knee.
The success that the military has in recruiting individuals depends on getting people to pay attention to their message. Once they have an audience for their message, it becomes a process of elimination to reach their recruiting goal. First, they bring out the messages about honor, glory, strength, pride, etc. Then they come to the schools, the poor neighborhoods, offering education and money. You can check out the equipment, do some video game simulation, a couple chin-ups and push-ups with your friends around and feel the comradery. One by one they pick them off. They prey on the emotional aspect of the human being. The underlying message that the military presents is that without them we would be powerless. Their message is that we are helpless without them and we need them to save us, to protect us in a dangerous world. Unfortunately, this too, is a message that is accepted and adopted as a valid perception of the world and a justification for committing crimes against humanity in the name of protecting humanity.
To prevent our perceptions from being hijacked we must evaluate what we are thinking to the best of our ability and ensure that what we are thinking is reasonable, rational and logical. Also, we owe it to others to let them know if the way they are perceiving things is unreasonable. This may seem like expecting too much of people but it is only helping to ensure our own safety when we monitor the thoughts and actions of our friends and family and hold them to a high moral standards. The greatest example we have of this is the 77 commandments. We do not want our brothers and sisters to be on either side of the military misfortune that befalls its soldiers.
One example that I will never forget is reading that the Air Force had recruited the son of the man who dropped one of the atomic bombs into Japan. They recruited this man, and based on the actions of his father, the article made clear that the expectation was that if necessary this man would be as “brave” as his father. The article stated that this man’s nickname was “nuke”. This is a prime example of how our responsibility for maintaining a reasonable, rational and logical perception of our world extends beyond ourselves and through our communities in order to ensure all of our safety. Restoring our ability to be responsible for ourselves, our families, communities and our traditional cultures will be the accomplishment that gives words like honor, pride and strength their meaning.
The US Army searches for its next generation of faceless killers
Why is the obvious so hard for us to see? Simple: the lenses through which we are looking at the world are dirty and need to be cleansed. The images we see are distorted, including the ones we see in the mirror. It then becomes challenging to judge the distance from or to an object(ive). It becomes a challenge to see in darkness. We may sometimes even see things that are not really there. The effort we put forth to see puts a strain on our eyes, so we close them in order to feel some relief. But while we are relaxing with our eyes closed, the world around us keeps moving and takes us wherever it wants to go. We then open our eyes only to find that it’s now even harder to see. Our lenses are dirtier than before we closed our eyes. It then becomes difficult to go from one place to the other without the aid of someone else, whom we are now forced to depend on to guide us in the direction we want to go. We feel forced to put our lives in the hands of others.
This analogy represents the negative and positive aspect of human development and survival for all of us born into the colonial system. Amazingly even the phrase “colonial system” does not registar in our minds as something hurtful the we should run from, although people of color have been subjected to it’s wrath for the last 2,000 years. Instead, in our minds, it registers as something to embrace. And we blindly make a sincere effort to do so. This behavior is often difficult to fathom. But once our eyes have been opened to the reality, the reasons become more obvious.
A critical assessment of the mind will show how serious the issue really is. It serves as a distraction when we assess our environment without first dealing with our minds and its assessment abilities. We should all be able to see the sick world in which we live. This ability takes little to no effort to develop. But sadly, just as we often neglect to pay attention to the symptoms our body sends/alerts us regarding our own health, we also often ignore the symptoms that our environment presents to us. Maybe it’s because we feel that we are not personally being affected by the environmental symptoms. Maybe it’s because we fell disconnected from our surroundings. Maybe it’s because we fell we can’t handles the reality as it presents itself. Or maybe it’s because we feel we can’t handle the reality as it presents itself. Or maybe, it’s because we are only “felling” instead of “thinking”!
Our ancestors, before colonization, functioned in a totally opposite manner. This is why the colonial world continues to study our culture today. Many want to know how our ancestors were able to achieve such a high quality of life. How they were able to domesticate plants and animals. How they were able to construct magnificent structures and symbols of their culture without the use of the machines that we have now become dependent on. The ways of our ancestors remain an enigma to this modren world. I remember Master Naba telling me, “Every word that we see that has the suffix ‘ology’ in it was born from some method of studying and trying to understand black people”. Because it was Merita (precolonial Africa) that introduced all of the disciplines we are aware of or study today, it would make sense for the usurper to know what makes his victims tick and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
It didn’t take them long to figure out that our abilities, ones that they were so impressed and insulted by, relied on our using our intelligence in the ways of our ancestors. So for the invader, it became clear that our ability to apply our intelligence and find solutions in any situations we were faced with needed to be replaced with something else if their conquests were to be successful. And because we showed that death was not an event to fear, they literally stopped aiming for the head…instead they figuratively targeted the heart. Because if you can control the emotional reactions of another individual–or even his entire society—the level of that individual’s intelligence will be useless against the agenda you are striving to achieve.
I think there are enough examples of the effectiveness of this tactic. We can observe them all around us, mainly from within the religious institutions that people of color have sacrificed their entire lives to be a part of. For example, knowing that these institutions we founded on slavery and the murder of millions of our ancestors does not sway our “faith” in the education our captors forced upon us. Even knowing that our quality of life had only gotten worse with every new generation has still failed to give us a different perspective. These facts are undeniably and unequivocally noticeable by anyone who can see, but if our lenses are dirty, we will constantly fail to see the obvious, regardless of how close we are to it.
The act itself of cleaning our lenses in order to strengthen our sight must be learned just like everything else. Why not learn it from your own ancestors? History has shown what they were capable of accomplishing, regarding everything we think we are striving for now.
It’s time to rebuild our brains.
Rebuilding the brain is the first step in rebuilding a civilization. Instead of asking “How do you feel” about something, start asking “What do you think” about this or that. This will at least start the growth process on some small level until your investigation of life leads you back to the education that has always belonged to you, the on that has never failed those who learned it, the one that you will only find on the ancestral path.
Recently there has been serious concern across the country about the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is supposedly a viral STD found in or near the female sex organ. The modern medical system blames HPV as the main cause of cervical cancer. In 2007, it was estimated that 11,000 women in the United States would be diagnosed with this type of cancer and nearly 4,000 would die from it. According to the American Social Health Association, about 20 million Americans are infected with HPV. It is expected that 5.5 million will contract it through sexual contact each year. In fact, it’s so common that it’s estimated that 75 to 90% of adults will become infected some time in their lives. Most of the time, the body will usually cure itself naturally within 2 years. Most people who catch HPV will never know they had it because they rarely show symptoms.
If we do the math, we will see that, according to the above statistics, about 11 of 20,000 (0.055%) American women who get HPV will get cervical cancer and 4 of 20,000 will die from it. Since almost every woman will get HPV, then we can say that about 4 out of every 20,000 (0.02%) American women will die of cervical cancer. The accuracy of these statistics, like all statistics, is questionable, but even so, 4 out of 20,000 is not an alarming rate.
HPV is said to be the cause of cervical cancer, but in traditional healing, we never say that something is the cause of an illness. This is because, by poinging the finger at one factor as being the cause, we are closing our eyes to other factors that may have contributed to the illness. If HPV was really the cause of cervical cancer, then we should expect that a very high rate of people diagnosed with HPV will actually get cervical cancer, probably at least half. Then we could say that it has a lot to do with it, but even then, what about the other half of the women who didn’t get cervical cancer? Even then, we have to say that there must be more to it, what did the 1 half do different from the other half? The HPV only tells part of the story.
Cervical cancer victim Jade Goody of Britain has raised the awareness abouit cervical cancer. HPV is said to be the cause of cervical cancer, but this claim should be questioned.
But back to reality, only 11 out of 20,000 women with a history of HPV develop cervical cancer. Considering the fact that virtually every woman will get HPV at some point, saying that HPV causes cervical cancer is like saying the common cold causes lung cancer. Imagine your doctor telling you that you should take a vaccine for the common cold because 11 out of 20,000 people women who catch the common cold will get lung cancer. What if he goes on to say that even if you take the vaccine, that you will probably still get a cold.
This is the situation with HPV. The medical industry has developed a vaccine that supposedly prevents 4 strains of the HPV, but there are over 100 known strains of the virus. So basically, the vaccine is useless. This is added to the fact that the virus itself is really no cause for concern. It’s a virus that everyone will catch and most will easily recover from, with no symptoms. A very small minority will develop cervical cancer and some will die from it. This is what the media is using to scare people.
If we don’t look at HPV as the cause of cervical cancer, we can look at other contributing factors: Multiple sex partners, poor eating habits, weakened immune system, birth control pills, smoking, chemical exposure and excessive
douching. It’s also said that regular pap smears and follow up treatment prevents almost 100% of cervical cancer cases. Given the fact that the vaccine does almost nothing to stop women from catching HPV, we should ask ourselves 2 questions: Why are we being bombarded with information about HPV, and why are companies aggressively marketing a vaccine for it?
Even though we’re just now hearing about this, for HPV to be so prevalent, it must have been around for a very long time and apparently humanity has survived until now. However, a couple of years ago, the media whipped the country into a frenzy about HPV and started aggressively pushing the vaccine Gardasil. In early 2008, Governor Rick Perry of Texas issued an executive order requiring that all girls between the ages of eleven
and twelve be vaccinated for HPV before entering sixth grade. This new requirement was to take effect beginning the school year of September 2008.
The implications of this are disturbing. If HPV is supposed to be an STD, why would it be required for pre-teens? Has this society become so depraved that girls are now expected to become sexually active before they even reach puberty?
One freelance writer from Texas wrote, “Statistics show that in 2006, there were over 1,000 new cases and 400 deaths from cervical cancer in Texas alone. It is estimated that over 80% of young women in the country already have HPV so a vaccination may save hundreds of thousands of lives.”
After a public outcry by the people of Texas, many by parents who said that the decision interferes with parenting and will encourage girls to have sex early, the order was overturned by Congress. Following the repeal, the Governor made the statement, “In the next year, more than a thousand women will likely be diagnosed with this insidious yet mostly preventable disease, I challenge legislators to look these women in the eyes and tell them, ‘We could have prevented this disease for your daughters and granddaughters, but we just didn’t have the gumption to address all the misguided and misleading political rhetoric.’ ”
These statements, which are blatantly misleading, are pushed by the media and politicians, banking on people being too lazy to do the research for themselves. Although the law was repealed in Texas, innoculations are now required for 11-26 year old female immigrants applying for a green card.
“The FDA adverse event reports on the HPV vaccine read like a catalog of horrors,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Any state or local government now beset by Merck’s lobbying campaigns to mandate this HPV vaccine (Gardasil) for young girls ought to take a look at these adverse health reports. It looks as if an unproven vaccine with dangerous side effects is being pushed as a miracle drug.”
I cannot honestly say that I know the reason, but I’ll offer this information: According to Dr. Joseph Mercola (mercola.com) “The federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) has received over 9,000 reports of problems since the vaccine’s introduction in 2006 (It has been estimated that only 10% or less of vaccine reactions are reported), which include at least 28 spontaneous abortions, and 27 deaths.” Additionally, he reports that there are concerns raised about the potential for HPV vaccines to cause infertility – whether purposely or not – being heard with more and more often. Gardasil contains Polysorbate-80 which has been linked to infertility in mice.
Additional adverse reactions to Gardasil included 3 deaths, paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures. It’s enough to say that, for the very limited benefit that Gardasil provides, the risks are much too high.
Without getting too deep into conspiracies, I will just say that we should always be careful when it looks like the government and media are trying to scare us. Usually it means that they have a plan for us that they want us to accept without thinking or questioning.
If there is still concern about cervical cancer, consider this: Although it’s illegal to claim to have a cure for something, traditional healers have been known to prescribe herbs to people with cancer. After the people with cancer have taken the herbs as prescribed, they have reported that they no longer have cancer. So there’s nothing to be scared of if we are intelligent and knowledgeable. Take care of yourself until next time…
CHICAGO – One of the largest events focusing on African culture will return to Chicago as the must-attend event of the summer. Africa International House (AIH) will present the 20th Annual Chrysler Financial African Festival of the Arts on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4 – 7, 2009, in Washington Park, at 51st and Cottage Grove. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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