Black Looks

• Carnival of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

  Posted: October 31, 2007, 1:41 pm by Sokari

  The 16 days will run from November 25th to December 10th and will incorporate the following: November 25th: The International Day Against Violence Against Women November 29th: International Women Human Rights Defenders Day December 1st: World Aids Day December 10th: International Human Rights Day To participate please fill in the Carnival form or email me at info at blacklooks [...]

• Umoja: A community of women in Kenya

  Posted: October 29, 2007, 12:49 pm by Sokari

  The women of Umoja are survivors of rape and women who have been ostracised by their families and communities. In Umoja they have come together to form their own community, working for themselves making crafts and on the land. Their choice to stand independently of men has resulted in further abuse and threats [...]

• Destroying our bodies but not our spirit

  Posted: October 27, 2007, 4:18 pm by Sokari

  Two not so new blogs but definitely worth regular visits. The first is Dogonland which was started by one of my best friends, Del Hornbuckle about a year ago but was shut down due to technical difficulties. She has now relaunched the blog and it is looking good! Neat and beautifully presented [...]

• Goodbye Uncle Tom

  Posted: October 26, 2007, 8:00 pm by Sokari

  Goodbye Uncle Tom - One of the most shocking aspects of this unashamedly racist film full of gratuitous violence and frankly disgusting, is that it was made not in the 1930s or 40s but in 1971 by Italian directors, Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi. The directors claim the film’s [...]

• Go Bokke Go!

  Posted: October 25, 2007, 7:57 pm by Andile Mngxitama

  The final whistle blows, a united South Africa burst into a deafening mindless celebration. Vuvuzelas scream, cars hoot and spin, blacks and whites exchange heart felt hugs in suburban sport bars. Townships rupture into dance and song. Die Bokke have done it again – We are the World champions second time in 12 years! [...]

• None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa & Homofactus Press: Kicked Out

  Posted: October 25, 2007, 4:40 pm by Sokari

  NONE ON RECORD AND HOMOFACTUS PRESS ARE BOTH SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FROM THE LGBTI COMMUNITY FOR TWO NEW BOOKS: None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa Edited by: Notisha Massaquoi & Selly Thiam WE are collecting stories of Africans from the continent and within the diasporic communities that identify as queer, lesbian, gay, [...]

• Quick Links - can the beauty take on the beast?

  Posted: October 24, 2007, 4:29 pm by Sokari

  Human rights activists, Grace Kwinjeh has started a series of weekly summaries for the Center for Civil Society based at the University of KwaZulu Natal. This particular piece reports the violence against Women of Zimbabawe Arise ( WOZA). Violence that inlcudes Political threats, insults by police officers, unlawful detention, and humiliating and degrading treatment [...]

• BHM - Maurice Bishop & Thomas Sankara

  Posted: October 21, 2007, 7:31 pm by Sokari

  24 years ago yesterday, the Prime Minister of Grenada, Maurice Bishop was assassinated effectively ending the Grenadian revolution and the “New Jewel Movement” led by Bishop and to the invasion of Grenada by Ronald Reagan’s US forces. The JEWEL Movement (The Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education & Liberation) was originally started in [...]

• In the fields & out of the massa’s way

  Posted: October 19, 2007, 6:12 pm by Sokari

  Kym Platt sent me an article in the LA Times on blogger Field Negro. His blog is one of my regular reads and here he reveals himself as an attorney. I’ve noticed lately more and more bloggers are coming out or starting out with their real names. Maybe they have [...]

• Lucky Dube: R I P

  Posted: October 19, 2007, 3:18 pm by Sokari

  R. I. P. LUCKY DUBE - South African reggae super star was murdered in a hijacking in Joburg last night at around 8pm An injured Dube tried to flee but drove his grey Chrysler sedan into a tree and died on the scene. No further details were available as his son, who reportedly witnessed the [...]

• Watson of double-helix fame is “mortified”

  Posted: October 19, 2007, 2:23 pm by Rethabile

  “The American scientist at the center of a media storm over comments suggesting that black people were not as intelligent as whites said Thursday he never meant to imply that the African continent was genetically inferior, adding that he was mortified over the attention his words had drawn.” [source] Mr Watson, who should be whacked on the [...]

• Omissions in Black History month

  Posted: October 18, 2007, 5:02 pm by Sokari

  I picked up the first copy of Black History published to coincide with this year’s Black History Month in Britain. Definitely some Black history gems with a focus on more of our forgotten heroes and heroines such as civil rights activist, Claudia Jones. Ms Jones was deported from the US to Britain during [...]

• “Virtual Panhandling for Reparations” (better late than never)

  Posted: October 16, 2007, 4:13 pm by Sokari

  Completely forgot this despite constant reminders on Facebook and other blogs. This one from Kameelah writes National Day of Panhandling for Reparations is a national street performance on October 10, 2007, led by conceptual artist damali ayo. I am participating in this performance because I believe that a conversation about reparations has been pushed aside for [...]

• Complimentary religions: Voudou & Liberation Theology

  Posted: October 12, 2007, 3:17 pm by Sokari

  August 12th, Port-au-Prince, Haiti I haven’t written anything yet about my visit to Haiti - cannot really explain why or maybe I was just too overwhelmed in such a short space of time and met so many people from the Lavalas movement, activists, women who had been tortured, shot, lost husbands and children, people struggling to [...]

• US funds homophobia in Uganda

  Posted: October 12, 2007, 2:50 pm by Sokari

  The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has published a disturbing story reporting that the US Government has been funding anti gay and lesbian groups in Uganda such as the Makerere University Community Church and the Ugandan Muslim Tabliqh Women’s Desk who have said they will form an “anti-gay squad to [...]

• Gated Living, Reflection #1

  Posted: October 12, 2007, 2:23 pm by Annwen

  Gated Living, Reflections #1 At the moment, I cannot stomach begging. Every corner I walk past in this Eastern Cape city - on my way to work, buying groceries, drinking a latte, thinking about what next to write- I am confronted with uninvited outstretched palms, spread open like hopeful butterfly wings. Sometimes it’s only one open [...]

• Diverse Expresssions and living in peace

  Posted: October 11, 2007, 5:13 pm by Sokari

  SMUG (Sexual minorities of Uganda) have closed the “Let us live in peace campaign”. The campaign began 45 days ago with 8 members of the LGBTI community sharing their experiences at a press conference in Kampala. The aim of the campaign was to try to bring some understanding of the reality of the lives [...]

• More on Tutu Ban

  Posted: October 9, 2007, 8:59 pm by Sokari

  Tristen Taylor (Contrary to Authority) has published a series of correspondence on the banning of Desmond Tutu from St Thomas University including his own letter to the university: Tutu’s Inquisition To: DEHENNES@stthomas.edu, DJDEASE@stthomas.edu, MCDIENHART@stthomas.edu, SLALEXANDER@stthomas.edu, LCHALVERSON@stthomas.edu, ARCALLAGHAN@stthomas.edu, webmaster@stthomas.edu, gradcath@stthomas.edu, mgmt_center@stthomas.edu, CCIGIELSKI@stthomas.edu, RMHALL@stthomas.edu, VCTHOUIN@stthomas.edu, NHZINGALE@stthomas.edu Date: 8th Oct. 2007 Dear Sirs, I have to object in the strongest terms possible [...]

• where sugar is not so sweet

  Posted: October 9, 2007, 2:34 pm by Sokari

  Cane cutters 2007 Related links: Human rights advocate Sonia Pierre (born in the Dominican Republic of Haitian parents) discusses the plight of Haitians in the DR such as denial of citizenship to those born in the DR of Haitian parents. WHEN Sonia Pierre won an international human rights award last fall, there were two diametrically [...]

• Tutu barred from speaking at school

  Posted: October 8, 2007, 12:24 pm by Rethabile

  “I am Jewish, and stifling debate and dissent [and] criticism of Israel is a disservice to all Jews, the state of Israel and the American people,” [Marv Davidov] said. [source] Mr Davidov was referring to the decision by St Thomas University in Minnesota not to invite Desmond Tutu. The reason the school gave was that Bishop Tutu [...]

• the run from qoaling to grootvlei by ...

  Posted: October 6, 2007, 9:20 am by Rethabile

  the run from qoaling to grootvlei by lantern light we snuffed out when sound leapt at us (or seemed to leap as it does when the wind heaves forth) we left, travelling the terrain wintered with contempt, ears tuned for the sound of foot, boot, the snap of dog on our tail. beasts are oblivious to this, to things that knot us, questing always for [...]

• Brother, I’m Dying

  Posted: October 5, 2007, 11:43 pm by Sokari

  A Memoir by Edwidge Danticat Brother, I’m Dying” is above all the story of Danticat’s uncle. As unrest intensified with each regime change, Mira urged Joseph to leave Haiti and the church he had built. It was only in 2004, when gangs including members of his own flock turned on him, that he was forced [...]

• A poem for Sarah Baartman

  Posted: October 4, 2007, 7:10 pm by Sokari

  A poem for Sarah Baartman By Diana Ferrus “I’ve come to take you home – home, remember the veld? the lush green grass beneath the big oak trees the air is cool there and the sun does not burn. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill, your blankets are covered in buchu and mint, the proteas stand in yellow [...]

• Half hour for Haiti

  Posted: October 3, 2007, 1:53 pm by Sokari

  The day I arrived in Haiti - 13th August was the day after Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine disappeared. His car was found abandonded on the road side and he has not been seen since. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is a member of the Lavalas Part and the head of Fondayson Tran Septanm (September 30th [...]

• Celebrating Diversity? Nigeria’s Speak Up Campaign

  Posted: October 1, 2007, 10:52 pm by Sokari

  Today is Nigeria’s 47th anniversary but I am not celebrating - see below! Omodudu IS celebrating and as a member of the newly formed Nigerian Lighthouse he asked all Nigerian bloggers to write a letter to Nigeria as part of the “Speak Up Campaign”. There are five finalists including yours truly. I am [...]

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes