Black Looks

• Fleeing in the time of Biafra

  Posted: August 31, 2009, 3:03 pm by Sokari

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  No one speaks of Biafra but scrape the surface and half of the yellow sun still rises. This short story published in 234NEXT goes some way to break the silence. Going Home by Chika Unigwe She said it started with the wife of the Igbo headmaster who was hacked to death in her own [...]

• Half Hour for Haiti

  Posted: August 28, 2009, 2:55 pm by Sokari

  It is August 2009 and the people of Haiti are once again bracing themselves for the hurricane season.  Last year the country was devastated by four hurricanes in just one month…. “The four tropical storms, ending with September’s Hurricane Ike, turned Haiti into a wasteland…Nearly 800 people died, about 60% of the country’s harvest was destroyed [...]

• Lesbians are everywhere

  Posted: August 27, 2009, 7:35 pm by Sokari

  **LESBIAN MOVEMENTS: RUPTURES & ALLIANCES is a collection of experiences from those involved in lesbian, civil society and human rights movements worldwide. Lesbians have always been present in various civil society movements, with gay men’s organizations, in feminist groups, as well as in the artistic sphere and in the fight for decolonization and independence of [...]

• Awakening 2: Fuzzed Out on Spectrums

  Posted: August 27, 2009, 1:20 pm by Sokari

  woke up this morning bumped my head fuzzed out, lights stars and wizzy things trying to remember who am I? looked into the mirror and saw two eyes, good for seeing one nose, good for smelling two ears, good for listening one mouth and one tongue, good for licking, sucking, munching, smiling and much more so I must be me voices [...]

• SA debate on same sex relationships

  Posted: August 26, 2009, 3:11 pm by Sokari

  Part of the Big Debate series broadcast of South African TV, this is Part 3 of the Sex & Culture programme which discusses same sex relationships.

• Eudy Simelane Murder Trial continues 26 & 27 August 2009

  Posted: August 26, 2009, 12:35 pm by Sokari

  After 15 months of organising and calling for justice in the murder of lesbian soccer player, Eudy Simelane the accused will begin their defense today. In these months evidence presented before the courts has consistently failed to address gender stereotyping that might have aggravated her attack and subsequent murder. From tomorrow, 26 August, Khumbulane Magagula, [...]

• Interview with Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o

  Posted: August 25, 2009, 2:30 pm by Sokari

  Well worth taking the time to listen. There are only two tribes in Kenya [Africa], the Haves and the Have Nots I look at Kenya, at Africa through the eyes of ordinary person. I measure development not from the view point of those who are at the top of the mountain but from the standpoint [...]

• Awakening 1: 49 Mean Ness Street

  Posted: August 25, 2009, 2:22 pm by Sokari

  49 Mean Ness Street I woke up. Opened the door. Shut the door and there they were. The beggars feasting on the remains me the day. Blind legless armless lepers and assorted deformities assaulted my walled enclave of iron. 49 Mean Ness street had become a beggars banquet. Beggars eating, drinking, laughing, dancing, loving. Blind looked at me and spat, I was [...]

• SA Feminists speak on Caster Semenya, sex tests and gender mix

  Posted: August 25, 2009, 11:54 am by Sokari

  Caster Semenya and – the ‘elephant in the room’ We write in response to the controversy surrounding the 800 m women’s world running champion, Caster Semenya and the flurry of articles surrounding this sad saga. Some of those championing Caster’s cause accuse those wanting to sex-test Caster of imperialism and racism (as well as sexism). Others [...]

• Semenya’s case – an ugly show of gender prejudice

  Posted: August 24, 2009, 1:27 pm by Sokari

  Julius K Kaggwa, Ugandan intersex activist comments on Caster Semenya I have been following the story of Semenya and the controversy that has arisen from her outstanding achievement at the world games simply because her athletic ability and appearance are too masculine for her to be a woman. One of the greatly disturbing details is the [...]

• “Harriet”

  Posted: August 23, 2009, 1:42 pm by Sokari

  “Harriet” is a choreopoem by Zhana which explores themes around the sexual exploitation of African American women during enslavement. “Harriet” tells the true story of Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and portrays an imaginary meeting between her and Harriet Tubman. Harriet [...]

• The death of Sean Rigg

  Posted: August 22, 2009, 1:37 pm by Sokari

  On the 21st August 2008 around 8.30pm Sean Rigg, a 40 year old Black man from Brixton, died in the custody of Brixton Police Station. Sean is one of a long line of Black males who have died whilst in police custody yet not one single member of the police has ever been made [...]

• Interview with Mike Cope

  Posted: August 21, 2009, 3:44 pm by Rethabile

  1. What’s your relationship to poetry? How do you interact with it? I talk to my pet rabbit in rhymed couplets. Apart from that, I read it and think about it a fair bit. I make up songs in my head, to borrowed tunes. ———- 2. Do you work on just one poem at a time, or do [...]

• Gender Terrorism: We are all Sara Baartman

  Posted: August 20, 2009, 8:04 pm by Sokari

  The IAAF’s decision to force Caster Semenya to undergo a “gender verification test” is an example of erroneous spectacle based on binary fixations which feed into the misappropriation of a person’s actual gender identity. This should not be used as an indicator of what a persons identity is. The Guardian report [...]

• Untold Black history: forgotten African WWII soldiers

  Posted: August 20, 2009, 5:11 pm by Sokari

  One of the greatest omissions of 20th century European and African history are African soldiers who fought in World War I and II. Whilst we are repeatedly reminded of the role of the Gurkhas it is only now that these forgotten soldiers are being remembered as in a new BBC documentary which traces Nigerian [...]

• Frisked by Frisker

  Posted: August 20, 2009, 2:09 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Dear Frisker, So why the frisking, my darling frisker? You size me up as I approach your citadel; Your mind cannot withstand my masculine; You frisk me as rough as I have ever experienced How could you then question racist next door? So why the frisking, my darling frisker? Did you enjoy yourself while you were at it? You were no better [...]

• Lil monkey and pretty panda

  Posted: August 19, 2009, 4:09 pm by Sokari

  How about the representation of Blackness in children s toys not the 50s, 60s, 70s but in 2009. These two dolls, one black one were white were found on sale in Costco – the images speak for themselves. I’m black and a lil monkey I’m white and a pretty panda The report states that the [...]

• I couldnt find myself so I wrote myself in: Black monstrosities and reinforcement of fear

  Posted: August 19, 2009, 3:52 pm by Sokari

  Invisible Universe: a history of blackness in speculative fiction, is a work in progress documentary exploring the representation of blackness in horror and science fiction literature and film, and the response by “Black creators” in creating “their own universe”.

• Poverty is a criminal offence

  Posted: August 18, 2009, 2:52 pm by Sokari

  The Crime of Being Poor With all the socialist accusations being made, We do well to face the needy status and plight. Homelessness: infraction with fine to be paid, For loitering and begging. (Keep them out of sight.) Having no habitation to drink in privacy, A beer in public is a ticket to the clink. The poor have [...]

• Poetic Identities: 1

  Posted: August 16, 2009, 4:51 pm by Sokari

  I have become increasingly addicted to poetry particularly where it  is concerned with notions of identity, the politics of location and universal struggle.  HERE Joyoti Grech answers that familiar and so loaded question “Where are you from“  and other questions which constrict one’s being and becoming more than….. In Answer to some questions In answer to some [...]

• Naija Nymph

  Posted: August 10, 2009, 3:25 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  You won’t hear of mermaids in folklore Not to mention in naijan Daily life. “It a western thing. It’s not for us,” Said my naija nymph Sweet as fleshly harvested honey. I smiled. If only that were true? “Naija isn’t impervious to Evolution like the West it Will break free of itself,” I Said savouring sanity over delusional desires to Be pure, secure, never ever [...]

• Calabar slave museum

  Posted: August 7, 2009, 3:40 pm by Sokari

  Slavery has always been a near-taboo topic of discussion between Africans and Blacks in the Diaspora. In discussions about slavery, inevitably, the issue of sharing blame always arises. Did Africans because of greed, jealousies, stupidity, and or the lure of cheap gin and beads offered by Europeans gladly sell off their own people to a [...]

• Feminism

  Posted: August 3, 2009, 3:24 pm by Sokari

  Feminism is an activism In the service of equal Rights for all women with -out exception; all of us. Congratulate yourself When you hear echoes of The gunshots pow, pow followed by a ring, ring, Hits concrete or metal, Setting my nerves on end. Don’t call yourself a [...]

• Eudy Simelane: Update – trial resumes Aug 26th

  Posted: August 1, 2009, 3:52 pm by Sokari

  Friday 31 Aug; Delmas: The state today closed its case against the three men accused of robbing, raping and murdering lesbian soccer star Eudy Simelane in April 2008. Activists, still reeling from the shocking happenings on day one in which state witness Thato Mphiti recanted his previous testimony and took sole responsibility for the crime, [...]

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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

The end of the fish cakes