268 Search results for "west africa"

Orlando Jones was fired from ‘American Gods’ because Black anger makes white people uncomfortable
by Andrew Keahey White supremacy doesn’t allow for Black anger. The second we get even mildly irritated in any way and make the mistake of actually showing it, we’re labeled as irrational, problematic, and even violent. You see it all the time. It’s one of the reasons twitchy white cops use to justify their brutality […]
A meditation on intergenerational trauma and how we raise Black children
This essay contains discussion of suicide. by Donnie Moreland On the other side of her beautiful and hardened, bulging belly, I can feel them. My baby navigating the uterus of the woman I love, curious to the pressure of my palm on the soft brown flesh between them and I. I imagine their curiosity, or […]
Finding our way back to the religions stolen from our ancestors
Not enough people know about Bois Caïman. I only learned of it myself within the last few years. Even among those of us who are familiar with the 18th century slave rebellion that led Haiti (once called Saint-Domingue) to its independence from French colonial rule, some do not know that this insurrection began with a […]
Our hair is a map to freedom: What I learned about resistance from the “1st” free Black town in the Americas
By Teju Adisa-Farrar When God made mountains He made runaway slaves — Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia We were not supposed to survive. Last month, AfroPunk published an article about Argentina’s genocide of their Black populations. Unsurprisingly, Argentina is not much different from other countries who have tried to erase their Black populations or their impact […]
Remains of ship found in Gulf Coast could be the last known U.S. slave ship
According to a report from Ben Raines of Al.com, researchers may have found the long-buried and forgotten remains of the Clotilda, the ship widely believed to be either the last or among the last ships to complete voyages that brought Africans to America, entangling them in slavery. The ship was at least partially buried in […]
The Black church isn’t one-dimensional either: How Gullah-Geechee people subvert Christianity to retain Black history
By Ari Colston-Johnson To many, the Black Church calls to mind horror stories of cisheteropatriarchy and theologies shaped by colonialism, white supremacy, and respectability politics. But coming of age in the Gullah-Geechee African Methodist Episcopal (AME) tradition, the Black Church was a foundation for my radical politics, a space for community and Afrocentric syncretism, and […]
The Black church taught me to be a docile victim, and now I renounce its lessons
I keep having to come out as “nothing.” To family, friends, coworkers, and anyone else who might make assumptions about my religious identity and affiliations. By “nothing” I mean that I do not subscribe to any organized religion or form of spirituality. Neither do I identify as atheist or agnostic. This is a point that […]
NPR releases Best Books of 2017 app, here are some picks by Black writers
If you’re a book lover, a literature lover, or a writer of any sort who needs recommendations on what to read, you’re in luck because NPR has released a “best of” list of over three hundred books in several different genres. I have gone through the trouble of looking through the list for work by […]
‘Thor: Ragnarok’ through a Black and Indigenous post-colonial lens
by Briana L. Ureña-Ravelo Warning: Spoilers up ahead! After months of anticipation, I finally saw Thor: Ragnarok and I was not in the least bit disappointed. Taika Waititi is the Indigenous Maori director, writer, actor, and comedian who made sure Indigenous people, jargon, humor, culture, and anti-colonial messaging was prominent throughout the movie, and who made […]
Why can’t we defend Blackness when a Black person does something wrong?
“Nothing exists in a vacuum” is a trite old aphorism used to explain how all actions have consequences. It is founded on a basic principle in physics that states that space without matter, by definition, contains nothing. The saying highlights the reality that any actions occurring outside of vacuums create ripple effects because matter connects […]
Artist Makeda Lewis on Luck And Her Now Iconic Afro-Feminist Coloring Book
By: L. G. Parker By now you’ve heard of Atlanta-based artist Makeda Lewis. The 25-year-old multidisciplinary artist’s Avie’s Dreams, an Afro-Feminist coloring book and surrealist poem, has been celebrated by Saint Heron, Nylon, Blavity and more. In its rich pages, uncolored images are accompanied by introspective words that speak to the artists journey as a […]
Hits and misses of President Obama’s final State of the Union address
Tuesday night was President Barack Obama’s last State of the Union. Full remarks: Watch @POTUS deliver his final State of the Union address. #SOTU https://t.co/AOyWjdFk4O — White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) January 13, 2016 Appropriate for the moment, his speech was retrospective, examining the work he was able to accomplish, and some of his shortcomings, over the […]