Black Looks

• The struggle against poverty, war & occupation

  Posted: January 31, 2009, 9:00 am by Sokari

  Bolivia, Canada, China, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Palestine, Peru, Scotland, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, US, Venezuela, Wales Five massive events are taking place in London over the next two weeks. The events are being organised by the SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The struggle against poverty, war & occupation", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/the_struggle_against_poverty_war_occupation.html" });

• Murderers not militants

  Posted: January 30, 2009, 1:38 am by Sokari

  The men who killed the eleven year old girl and took her eight year old brother prisoner in Port Harcourt are not militants and having nothing to do with the struggle against environmental and human rights abuses by multiantionals and the Nigerian government. They are murderers and kidnappers of children SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Murderers not militants", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/murderers_not_militants.html" });

• Sprinkling confetti all over my head

  Posted: January 30, 2009, 1:31 pm by Rethabile

  I’m on my knees before the cross, and this is me, my last pirouette to the world, the close of it: my curtain-dropping whirl. I’m the secret to death at the altar and dying, I tell you, is an art. You’re going to be seeing me now, dead boy, for sure, my head a waxen screamer of joy. I’m not here to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sprinkling confetti all over my head", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/sprinkling_confetti_all_over_my_head.html" });

• Durban judge upholds 2007 Slum Act

  Posted: January 29, 2009, 1:00 am by Sokari

  On the 6th November last year, Abahlali baseMjondolo applied to have the “KwaZulu- Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act 2007″ to be declared unconstitutional. Yesterday the judge ignored the argument that shack settlements are communities with a right to the city and upheld the Slum Act. “The province of [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Durban judge upholds 2007 Slum Act", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/durban_judge_upholds_2007_slum_act.html" });

• Images of Nollywood

  Posted: January 29, 2009, 11:00 am by Sokari

  I am not a fan of Cape Town but the one thing the city has to offer is the Michael Stevenson Gallery. As well as an ongoing series of photo exhibitions by lesbian photo activist Zanele Muholi, the Gallery has an exhibition by Pieter Hugo which uses photography to explore the “ [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Images of Nollywood", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/images_of_nollywood.html" });

• Quick Links

  Posted: January 28, 2009, 11:39 pm by Sokari

  The world as a village of 100! We dont often hear of climate change in an African context. These eight videos “explore the human costs of climate change in Africa” 90% of the worlds total population to do not have access to what 10% take for granted - both in the global south [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Quick Links", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/quick_links-18.html" });

• Writing Queer Kenya

  Posted: January 28, 2009, 2:25 pm by Sokari

  Writing Queer Kenya is an anthology of stories by Kenyan LGBTI to be published in December 2009. The book will be edited by: Keguro Macharia and Angus Parkinson We lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, in a word, queers, have had the distinct un-pleasure of being told we don’t exist—in official government statements, historical documents, and contemporary [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Writing Queer Kenya", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/writing_queer_kenya.html" });

• Human Rights Violations on Kenya’s Transgender Community

  Posted: January 27, 2009, 2:54 pm by Sokari

  Audrey Mbugua is a member of the “Transgender Education and Advocacy”, an organization recently formed in Kenya to address social injustices committed on the Kenya’s transgender community. The Kenyan transgender community face intolerance and hostility much of which is based on ignorance of transgenderism some basics concepts such as the difference between religious fundamentalism, sexism, [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Human Rights Violations on Kenya’s Transgender Community", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/human_rights_violations_on_kenyas_transgender_community.html" });

• Nigeria passes new homophobic Bill

  Posted: January 23, 2009, 3:14 pm by Sokari

  After postponing the Same Sex Marriage Bill in March 2007, the Government has now presented a new Bill “The Same Gender Prohibition Bill” which has now been passed by the Lower House of Representatives. This is horrendous that a democracy in 2009 can pass such repressive and bigoted legislation to criminalise what is effectively [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Nigeria passes new homophobic Bill", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/nigeria_passes_new_homophobic_bill_.html" });

• From Africa to Haiti to Gaza: Fidelity to humanity

  Posted: January 21, 2009, 11:44 am by Sokari

  Jacques Depelchin, peace activist and Executive Director of the Ota Benga Alliance For Peace, Healing and Dignity based in the DRC, has written a poem “From Africa to Haiti to Gaza: Fidelity to humanity”. The poem makes the connection between historical and contemporary struggles for liberation and justice from Africa to the Americas, to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "From Africa to Haiti to Gaza: Fidelity to humanity", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/from_africa_to_haiti_to_gaza_fidelity_to_humanity.html" });

• Poem for Barack Obama

  Posted: January 20, 2009, 6:29 pm by Rethabile

  RICHARD OF YORK GAVE BATTLE IN VAIN for Barack Obama The world has been cut into pieces with the knife of greed: this new one lives in all worlds with his skin, and has been sent to turn us into one separate thing, fit the colours into the prism once again, so that there’s light; this new one knows folks in a mansion, knows others in prison, oboe or [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Poem for Barack Obama", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/poem_for_barack_obama.html" });

• Urgent action to stop deportation of rape survivor

  Posted: January 20, 2009, 2:14 pm by Sokari

  Flavia Nambi is a Rape survivor detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre and facing removal today Tuesday 20 January, at 7pm. Please phone or write to: 1. Phil Woolas MP, Immigration Minister, Home Office Minister of State for borders and immigration, UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk 2. Jacqui Smith MP, Secretary of State [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Urgent action to stop deportation of rape survivor", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/urgent_action_to_stop_deportation_of_rape_survivor.html" });

• MLK Day: Eyes on the prize

  Posted: January 20, 2009, 2:23 am by Sokari

  SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "MLK Day: Eyes on the prize", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/mlk_day_eyes_on_the_prize.html" });

• Shell oil spill from ruptured pipeline in Niger Delta

  Posted: January 19, 2009, 12:00 pm by Sokari

  The oil spill in these video happened some 6 weeks ago and is still flowing. Shell has been told about the spill but has so far done nothing. You can see from the video the extent of the damage to the local community. Pure crude flowing through the land. This is just the [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Shell oil spill from ruptured pipeline in Niger Delta", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/shell_oil_spill_from_ruptured_pipeline_in_niger_delta.html" });

• Keeping silent

  Posted: January 18, 2009, 12:00 pm by Sokari

  Al Sharpton: “There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people’s bedrooms and claim that God sent you,” Sharpton told a full house on Sunday. “It amazes me,” he said, “when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Keeping silent", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/keeping_silent.html" });

• Struggle for the city - from racial to class apartheid in South Africa

  Posted: January 17, 2009, 4:01 pm by Sokari

  During the Apartheid regime in South Africa, Africans and other non-whites were moved to locations outside the city center and separated from each other. This segregation and regulation of spaces was , together with the pass laws, a key aspect of Apartheid. Land Rights activist Richard Pithouse argues that despite the principle of [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Struggle for the city - from racial to class apartheid in South Africa", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/struggle_for_the_city_-_from_racial_to_class_apartheid_in_south_africa.html" });

• Time out

  Posted: January 17, 2009, 12:00 pm by Sokari

  Farafina Magazine is a Nigerian literary magazine that just gets better with each publication. They have recently revamped their website to include an online version of the printed magazine which has three viewing options, magazine, paper and presentation. Like all great websites, there is a blog - The Farafinist and there [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Time out", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/time_out.html" });

• Challenging Penalty Notices to stop racism & criminalisation in UK

  Posted: January 16, 2009, 11:35 am by Sokari

  Black Women’s Rape Action Project [BWRAP]and Legal Action for Women [LAW] recently got a penalty notice [PN] withdrawn. It had been issued against the son of one of their volunteers, a young man who suffers from severe trauma and has been picked on by police on a number of occasions. BWRAP and [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Challenging Penalty Notices to stop racism & criminalisation in UK", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/challenging_penalty_notices_to_stop_racism_criminalisation_in_uk.html" });

• Abandoning Martin Luther King on 80th anniversary of his birth

  Posted: January 15, 2009, 12:06 am by Sokari

  Amidst all the post racial nonsense floating around the world it is not surprising the Martin Luther King’s birthday got a bit lost in the hooray hoorar. And hear this in a show of cowardly ignorance and an “Abandonment of Kings Legacy” the Congressional Black Caucus votes to absolve Israel “for its crimes against [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Abandoning Martin Luther King on 80th anniversary of his birth", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/abandoning_martin_luther_kings_on_80th_anniversary_of_his_birth.html" });

• Eudy Simelane and the significance of the murder trial

  Posted: January 15, 2009, 8:22 pm by Sokari

  Phumi Mtetwa of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, South Africa, reflects on the significance of the impending trial of the 4 men accused of murdering Eudy Simelane. TRIAL INTO THE MURDER OF LESBIAN SOCCER PLAYER SET FOR FEBRUARY 2009 The Delmas Circuit Court in Mpumalanga will hear the trial into the murder of lesbian [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Eudy Simelane and the significance of the murder trial", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/eudy_simelane_and_the_significance_of_the_murder_trial.html" });

• Once there were Panthers

  Posted: January 15, 2009, 9:14 am by Sokari

  SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Once there were Panthers", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/once_there_were_panthers.html" });

• melancholy

  Posted: January 15, 2009, 5:04 am by Sokari

  is it that time of the year when everything seems to far away or maybe its just so damn cold up here. i feel life is very much like an olive tree - a high yield year is always followed by a poor yield one. 2007 was a v.good year. 2008 was [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "melancholy", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/melancholy.html" });

• Accused for murdering lesbian soccer player go to trial

  Posted: January 14, 2009, 1:07 pm by Sokari

  In April it will be one year since the murder of South African lesbian soccer player Eudy Simelane. Initially five men were arrested and four of them are due to stand trial at Delmas Circuit Court in Mpumalanga from 11 to 13 February 2009. The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project is going [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Accused for murdering lesbian soccer player go to trial", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/accused_formurdering_lesbian_soccer_player_go_to_trial.html" });

• A fixture

  Posted: January 14, 2009, 2:28 am by Mia Nikasimo

  The shady figure there Hopping from one foot The other can’t wait A fix or something? There’s a shadow there Barring the doorway ‘Sorry mate!’ he said. ‘I’m not your mate!’ Lead weight of words. Albion is dingy dark A frozen gauze of fog The shadow disappeared. Consa haunt dealer’s den The time night itself Smoking reef in the path ‘You alright?’ said a sleeper The next thing the possy No home [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "A fixture", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/_a_fixture.html" });

• Born at the crossroads I am my parents dream

  Posted: January 13, 2009, 9:00 pm by Sokari

  In part of a BBC World Service series of writers letters to Barack Obama, Aminata Forna Aminatta Forna, author of “The Devil that Danced on the Water” and Ancestor’s Stones, responds to the coming Presidency of Barack Obama. The programme is part of the BBC World Service Strand series of “Open letters and [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Born at the crossroads I am my parents dream", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/born_at_the_crossroads_i_am_my_parents_dream.html" });

• Canopic Jar 22

  Posted: January 13, 2009, 11:26 am by Sokari

  Canopic Jar is an online literary journal published on an ad hoc basis by Phil Rice and Rethabile Masilo. The name Canopic Jar was thought up on a night over a few beers by founders Phil” Merrill and Rice who explains the name as ….. A loose definition for a Canopic Jar is that [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Canopic Jar 22", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/canopic_jar_22.html" });

• Interview with Black Australian activist & poet, Yvette Holt

  Posted: January 12, 2009, 5:31 pm by Sokari

  Award winning Black Australian poet, Yvette Holt talks to Lesley Woodburn about her life and love of words. [Photo: Yvette Holt - 2008.© Lesley Woodburn] Yvette Holt is a descendant of the Bidjara and Wakaman Nations of Queensland the youngest of four, Yvette says she “is more of the twisted branch on the [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Interview with Black Australian activist & poet, Yvette Holt", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/interview_with_black_australian_activist_poet_yvette_holt.html" });

• The solidier & the boy

  Posted: January 11, 2009, 1:11 am by Sokari

  Via A Fragment of the Emperors New Rags SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The solidier & the boy", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/the_solidier_the_boy.html" });

• What Nigerians spend their money on

  Posted: January 10, 2009, 1:00 pm by Sokari

  I am loving graphics these days especially since they look really cool on this new blog design I am playing with. This one from Good Magazine shows who is buying what. What I found really interesting were the Nigerian figures compared to Egypt, Pakistan and especially India. Nigeria spends a proportionally huge [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "What Nigerians spend their money on", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/why_are_nigerians_spending_so_much_on_clothes.html" });

• Niger Delta at war

  Posted: January 9, 2009, 12:11 am by Sokari

  BBC Newsnight showed a documentary last evening on the Niger Delta with interviews with members of MEND and the Joint Task Force. Although factually there was nothing new and though it was positive to have Newsnight present a this report, I felt a lot of the commentary was crass and . For [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Niger Delta at war", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/niger_delta_at_war.html" });

• African responses to the War on Gaza

  Posted: January 9, 2009, 1:11 pm by Sokari

  Pambazuka News has a list of protests across African against the War on Gaza though I have to say it is somewhat sickening to see Sudanese people amongst the protesters given the “crimes against humanity”committed by their own leaders - would have been far more meaningful if they had also protested against the genocide [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "African responses to the War on Gaza", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/african_responses_to_the_war_on_gaza.html" });

• The Hatchet Job

  Posted: January 8, 2009, 12:57 am by Mia Nikasimo

  EB is the hatchet job If you don’t know better You would mistake EB for a goddess When you are not looking EB’ll stab you in the back EB will laugh. “Cant you take a harmless joke? You’re too sensitive, pet! BD turns her back & EB Pounces - the rabid cat: “You know BD don’t you, the same BD? & smirks BD didn’t miss [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Hatchet Job", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/the_hatchet_job.html" });

• Senegalese court jails 9 for sodomy

  Posted: January 8, 2009, 2:35 pm by Sokari

  Senegal which is one of the few former Francophone countries to criminalise sodomy has sentenced 9 men to an eight year jail sentence despite the judge’s recommendation of 5 years. The concern in this case is the violation of the rights of the men who were arrested in the home of Mr Diouf, who [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Senegalese court jails 9 for sodomy", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/senegalese_court_jails_9_for_sodomy.html" });

• Ghana Highlife

  Posted: January 7, 2009, 3:12 pm by Sokari

  Congratulations to the people of Ghana who today celebrate the inauguration of their new President Professor John Atta-Mills. Unlike their neighboruing colossus, Nigeria, the Ghanaians were able to carry out their elections without any violence and other squalid activities. This time last year violence erupted after the Kenyan elections in December 2007 [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Ghana Highlife", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/ghana_highlife.html" });

• World Walls [update]

  Posted: January 6, 2009, 12:10 pm by Sokari

  The other day I was reminded of this post on “Walls around the world” I wrote 18 months ago by a friend and I promised to post it again. Now there are even more walls. The whole of Gaza has always been a walled enclave in the midst of stolen lands. Now it is surrounded [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "World Walls [update]", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/world_walls_update.html" });

• The shoe as a political statement

  Posted: January 5, 2009, 12:14 pm by Sokari

  RN from Squatter City has started a new blog “Stealth of Nations” which reports on the global informal economy. In this latest post he reports on the sale of shoes under Eko Bridge in Lagos The Abassa Alakoro Market in Lagos, Nigeria. If Max Weber was right that “the ‘city’ is a market place,” then [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The shoe as a political statement", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/the_shoe_as_a_political_statement.html" });

• Transgender 101: Transsexualism

  Posted: January 4, 2009, 2:16 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Transsexualism is the ism at the point of treatment for a condition referred to as “gender dysphoria” which crudely means, “an extreme discomfort with birth sex”. This can affect male, female or other bodied people. Transsexuals as a result come in MTF (male to female) which means the individual’s sex preference is female or to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Transgender 101: Transsexualism", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/transgender_101_transsexualism_.html" });

• Ushahidi mapping war on Gaza

  Posted: January 3, 2009, 2:26 pm by Sokari

  Ushahidi was developed a year ago to map the violence last January following Kenyan elections. It has since been used in the DRC and now Al-Jazeera is using it to map and document the Israel’s attack war on Gaza. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Ushahidi mapping war on Gaza", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/ushahidi_mapping_war_on_gaza.html" });

• My body for food

  Posted: January 3, 2009, 1:00 pm by Sokari

  After having been forced from their homes in Eldoret by post-election violence, three women talk about why their had to turn to prostitution to make a living Thanks to Sista Muthoni SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "My body for food", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/my_body_for_food.html" });

• January

  Posted: January 2, 2009, 11:03 am by Sokari

  SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "January", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/january.html" });

• Two revolutions, two anniversaries: Cuba

  Posted: January 1, 2009, 12:39 am by Sokari

  “Unlike they, who will undoubtedly focus on the admitted negatives that are faced by the Cuban people, I will focus here on the real and serious gains of the Cuban people that are a result of the revolution. I hope you find these facts enlightening.,,,,,,,,,,,Continued“ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Two revolutions, two anniversaries: Cuba", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/two_revolutions_two_anniversaries_cuba.html" });

• Two revolutions, two anniversaries: Haiti

  Posted: January 1, 2009, 11:55 pm by Sokari

  Today marks the 205th anniversary of the Haitian revolution. “Live free or die!” Jean Jacques Dessalines to the Haitian people in Gonaives, on January 1st 1804, year first of Haiti’s independence Citizens, It is not enough to have expelled from your country the barbarians who have bloodied it for two centuries; it is not enough to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Two revolutions, two anniversaries: Haiti", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/two_revolutions_two_anniversaries_haiti.html" });

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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

The end of the fish cakes