Human Rights and the Congo

Greetings Family, Salutations 

On the eve of this International Human Rights Day, I would like to again call your attention to the world's most devastating human rights crisis.....the ongoing slaughter, horrific acts of rape, displacement of whole communities, devastation of the natural environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Indeed this war that seems to express itself as internecine, is at it's root, feed by an insatiable demand by the global economy for the vital resources of the Congo. This horror that in scope, approximates the suffering of WWII, and is  a tragic continuum of the nightmare of obscene creation of Leoplold's so called Congo Free State, is the blood sacrifice of African people, payment for the flourishing of the dominant global order. No excuse for those on the ground , (FDLR- ex Interhamwe, FPLC,Mai Mai and FRF amongst others), corrupt politicians in the DRC , Great Lakes states and beyond. But surely those who benefit most,who  have historically fueled and funded the slaughter, organized the endless supplies of arms and equipment needed to keep the bandits in the field must bear ultimate responsibility for the violation of the human rights of the people of the DRC.  So on this International Human Rights Day it is incumbent upon those of us who care, have a conscience or just horrified that our consumption of the high tech items of modern life, come at the expense of the lifeblood of our brothers and sisters, to speak up and act.The slaughter must stop and Lumumba's dream, the human rights and dignity of our people must be restored.

The Congo is not poor, but impoverished by the greed of Western predators.

These sisters and brothers are not terrorists, but savagely abused in their own homeland, now by our own children for the benefit of the invader.

The DRC is not the heart of darkness, but the shining light, the pulsating heart of Africa that is alive and striding into a better tomorrow in the beautiful promise of our children .

Peace, justice and sovereignty for the Congolese people.  Onward to victory for all African people.

Join with and help build the Pan African movement for the liberation, sovereignty and dignity of the Congolese people.

Demand that the Pan African world fulfill it's sacred duty to our struggling sisters and brothers. 

Challenge the AU to honorably discharge it's constitutional duty

Demand accountability from the international community... bring the robbers of Africa to justice, demand respect from the MONUSCO  peacekeeping mission.

Call on your local community to stand up for Human Rights in the DRC and everywhere.

Request media coverage commensurate with the magnitude of this human tragedy. 

Visit the Friends of the Congo website and join the "Break the Silence Campaign"

We will not forget the suffering in Rwanda or the MAAFA

JANUARY 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Patrice Emery Lumumba
Films, Forums, Teach-ins, Rallies
Click here to find out about Patrice Lumumba
Contact: info@friendsofthecongo.org in order to participate.

Sizwe

View below study on Friends of the Congo website

Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During
the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo
South Kivu (1996-2003)
“They have destroyed our bodies and stripped us of our possessions.”
(M.C., KASHEKE, KALEHE, SOUTH KIVU, DRC)
“The use of rape in conflict reflects the inequalities women face in
their everyday lives in peacetime. Until governments live up to their
obligations to ensure equality, and end discrimination against women,
rape will continue to be a favourite weapon of the aggressor.”
(AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: HUMAN RIGHTS ARE WOMEN’S RIGHTS, LONDON, 1995

Women's Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo (PDF)
By Marie Claire Omanyondo Ohambe, Jean Berckmans Bahananga Muhigwa, Barnabe Mulyuumba Wa Mamba, Martine Rene Galloy, Ndeya Sow, and Catherine Hall

Reflections on Thanksgiving Day

Been a long long time.but here we are, another Thanksgiving, a promise of hope, appreciation and love for all we cherish, love for family. I am thankful for all who share this wonderful journey.
Yet I would be remiss if I fail to reflect on the historic meaning and implications for our lives and our indigenous sisters and brothers. For many Thanksgiving is a bitter irony, the proverbial "twisting of the knife in the wound". Even as I appreciate the sincerity and devotion so evident in the celebration of many of our homes, today I stand in solidarity with the first peoples of this land, for whom the meaning of this day could only lead to mourning. Yet even as they mourn, the people still stand, bent but not conquered.
The European Invasion and continued occupation of this land has ushered in one of the most complete and devastating holocausts in history. A history of genocide and broken treaties, of crimes against humanity that continues even today. Some of us will not forget, for as Bro Malcom offered "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock,..... Plymouth Rock landed on us.".
So celebrate yes, but with integrity and awareness of the MAAFA, wrought on those who like us paid and continue to pay a mortal price, for the what the oppressor is really celebrating....the power and privilege of the empire. Some of us seek a different dream and know the difference from the nightmare.
It is time for justice, liberation and self-determination for the first people for all people.

Just in case this message triggers too much sadness be renewed, by the words of the people themselves, "We are still here, still strong"

Salute and be uplifted by the work, the long walk of Ojibwa Warrior..Dennis Banks", Leonard Peltier, Chief Joseph, Joanne Shenandoah, Crazy Horse, Vernon Bellecourt and so many others

Humbly offering solidarity and much love, I am Sizwe

Imani

Habarigani
Imani.....Faith.....
Belief in our elders, family, friends, leaders, our community.
Yeabo

For those honored to carry this name, I salute you, for this is a mesmerizing responsibility a promise to never say never.
Imani is an absolute affirmation of "A Luta Continua".
For us who wage righteous struggle, there is no defeat, there can be no retreat.
This conviction, as it has come forth, in this journey of humanity that our people started, has been an ever present inspiration.
In the joy of victory, or even when it has illuded us. Our people have kept
the faith, and with heads held, high integrity intact, even in apparent finality of demise, we have been able to embrace that offering with grace, knowing that the circle is unbroken, there is no end.


Imani: Affirming Victory

It was Auset, affirming Imani
Gathering dismembered personage of her beloved Ausar Aset
Believing that, it is not over, not the end
Convinced that we today
Would continue this most tender love story
Of gathering together
Reuniting the dismembered parts of our circle
Our African family

It was in the cry of the children of Soweto
As the rose against the obscenity of settler colonialism
"They can't kill us all"
Something inside was so strong (Labi Sifre)
And Bob chant, "it's the fyah that's burning down everything"

Imani
In the hearts of our beloved
Stranded in the onslaught of Katrina
And the filth of/abuse neglect by rulers
But reaching through slimy waters
Believing that hands, our hands would be there
And youth were among those that came
Came to the rescue

It was Imani
in the hearts of ancestors
Facing the MAAFA of slavery
Heads bent, but hearts still defiant
Daring to believe in deliverance
Some day, through us

It was the audacity of faith,
Here in the belly of the beast
Here in the USA
Our people faced down
White supremacy
Exposing vile entrails, contradictions
Derailing oppressor's agenda
Self determination
Equal Rights and Justice

It is faith in
Resilience of our people in Congo
Sisters beaten, raped, brutalized
Rise and recover bringing forth the dawn
Aching, but unstoppable in conviction
We can
We must create better tomorrows

It was faith
Certain of victory
Our ancestors rose in Haiti
To rebel against the military/industrial might
Rebel against empire
Threw off the shackles of oppression
Broke it's back

It was Imani
In hearts of Women of Liberia
As they prayed the devil back to hell
Belief and Conviction
The standard,peace and justice held aloft
Commanded the world
"End the carnage"

No morbid obsession
This is promise to the future.
The captive, enslaved ancestor, daring to resist
Knowing only, if death found them, trying to be free
Their bleached bones would signal the path
The path to liberty
For us following in their wake
Demise...never in vain as long as we struggle

It is faith
Principle, Imani
Facing certain death, our people rallied
They, always carried on
In Grenada still we remember Julian Fedon
.."The hour will strike again"
But if the end came,
Claude McKay's words came, too:
If we must die, let us die
''Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!''

Imani
Lives on forever in the promise to carry on
It is in the pledge we make
To the ancestors, to each other now and to those on their way

A Luta Continua

I suggest Labi Sifre's "Something Inside So Strong" as a wonderful complement to
the Principle of Imani.

Respect and apreciation

Kuumba

Habarigani

Kuumba.....Creativity

Well this is what it's all about isn't it. The fact is that we have the potential, the gift and indeed the responsibility to be creative and we are, just look around.
Despite the contradictions and the seemingly overwhelming challenges we still rise.
However one problem, is that others often seem to benefit more from our creativity more than we do. Our talents regularly, going to those who would exploit us.

So the principle of creativity, being used to uplift our community is a fundamental requirement for our liberation, restoration and transcendence.
The system of global domination, needs us, we don't need it. If we would only trust and dare to reconnect with our true identity.
Try this, envision what possibilities obtain when our humanity is unbound.
We would define for ourselves what purpose is and mobilize our creativity to bring forth a vision rooted in our essence.
As the brother, Bunny Wailer noted in an interview on WRFG in the ATL, " We who are the original man, have no business copying anyone".
Or Dr Martin Luther King Jnr., (paraphrasing) observing that if all we will do is be a carbon copy of oppression, we may as well stop fighting against it.
I take that to mean that we have to create our own world...Kujichagulia.
No one will teach us, it is not in their curriculum, the system has no clue and really, our self-knowledge is our responsibility.
Take a serious look at our history and observe, how against overwhelming odds we bent but were never broken and still we rose.
So goes the flight of the Phoenix.
In summary, I would like to appreciate two precious forces in our lives, that which conceives us, and that which nourishes us into fruition. In my opinion, reproduction, sex, is potentially, the most sacred encounter between humans, and the bringing forth and nourishing of life, is the ultimate expression of our being and becoming...our creativity.
Western culture and some from the east, have turned this sacred duty, into an obscenity, characterized the creative act of love as a sin, then used it to oppress us, commercialized it and now sells sex back to us.
In the era of the crime, the terror of slavery, imagine how debase a system, supposedly commissioned by the white man's god, or others ( according to their own pronouncements), a system that violated the womb of the African woman, used it as playground for their depravity.
But ultimately to use the children produced as chattel for a machine with one singular aim...profit over all. Then like today, greed rules.
The essential purpose of our creativity, to bring forth the future, with love and integrity was thus subverted, during the MAAFA and it's legacy.
Some now look with scorn on the very process that created us all.
The sordid legacy lingers in obscenities, so freely hurled around, defiling motherhood and is a violent affront to our humanity.
I believe that in expressions of our creativity, we must with deep appreciation honor our sisters, women who permit us to share in this divine creative process.
Not only do they stand at the gateway of our entrance to the world, they are the gateway through which our tomorrows enter.
The scope of our human capacity will be in full effect, only when we affirm, the value of this offering, as we all entered through this loving expression of creativity, that is the African woman.

Kuumba

Nia

Habarigani

It occurs to me that the lifting up of a purposeful life, one of meaning, mission and I assume
dedicated to serving the vital needs of our community by fulfilling our creative potential,
is what Nia is intended to solicit.
Well in my humble opinion, few put it better than Frantz Fanon in his refrain that,
"Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it"
( Sounds like self-determination)
In order for us to answer the command of this principle, crystal clarity of the relationships
that inform our essential experience and therefore functional identity, is key.
After all, how can I know or discover what my purpose is, if I don't first deal with the question
of identity. In identity, I am not just referring to those organic physical or emotional characteristics
that determine personality. But to the elements that inform our relationships, to other humans,
nature etc. I speak of power...the capacity to impact our environment and related elements.

With a crisp appreciation of ourselves, and yes the wisdom of self love, clarity
about our identity and the integrity of our relationships will become clear. It is then that we
can answer Fanon's challenge.

Well if you agree, what is our essential purpose, what is the most defining aspect of our
relationship to the dominant culture. Although there is some variation, for the most part we
do not define our reality, but are defined by that culture. Essentially a captive, freedom
becomes an illusion, even for those who climb the heralded heights of Western Culture.

Yes to our credit, our valiant people, have sought to fulfill the sacred mission liberation,
of restoration, our natural impulse to experience the world and each other,in ways true
to our essential humanity. But neither house or field slave, even if we run the big house,has
attained this prize of self dertermination. both remain captive.

The choices now with us, as before with our noble ancestors remain consistent. The sacred
mission of the captive is to escape form the bonds that bind him, or at least break the chains
in the process. Yes, we have marron communities as one model...Palamres, Quilombo etc.

I am not advising any action, but concluding that one way to embrace the principle of Nia,
is to rise to the challenge to "discover that historic mission and fulfill it" .
For the integrity our progeny, their human rights and dignity to be secured, we must fulfill
the mission of breaking the chains that would deny that irreducible validation of our
humanity. We would have to be about the very sacred and vital mission, of always trying
to break out of the perverse clutches of this Babylon system

Nia

Ujamaa

Habarajani:

I suppose that by now, some may have had the chance to peruse the Arusha Declaration and appreciate the similarities between the principle of Ujamaa and the models for the development of community asarticulated by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

The concept of Ujamaa....cooperative economics, is a principle that speaks to the fact that what Kwanzaa is reaching for, is not just to address the material needs of the community, it is not solely the control of economic activity by black folk.

If I understand the observation of Walter Rodney, work is not only the production of goods and services, but the creation of culture.
Ujamaa offers a healthy a wholistic system, through which to pursue our essential needs with the integrity of culture.
Cooperation humanizes the mundane pursuit of resources for survival, comfort as against the competition and conflict, accepted as natural and even sacred in the economic model of the dominant global culture.

In the paradigm of monopoly capitalism, the so-called realist approach, offers that when there are finite resources, one side or the other must dominate, us against them, winners and losers. In fact, the condition of great need, imbalance, is seen as a driving, if not defining element of capitalism.

Cooperation in contrast, posits that precisely because there is limited resources there should be greater collaboration, harmony and sharing.
This is the wisdom of a culture that appreciates and has the depth, to trust the inherent creative capacity the human to solve her problems. Relations of harmony offer the fertile soil for maturation of that seed.

Our culture, the ancient wisdom that informs Kwanzaa, ( at it's best ) chooses MAAT, problem solving, trust and creativity over destruction.
"The Ujamaa village is a new conception, based on the post Arusha Declaration understanding that what we need to develop is people, not things, and that people can only develop themselves . . . " Julius Nyerere.
The competition evidenced by those in the dominant global economic culture, sees those very relations as a threat.
The answer to supposed scarcity becomes ......reduce the population rather than redistribute the wealth.

My proposal is that the embrace and actualization of the principle of Ujamaa, cooperative economics, offers us control of our communities.
But beyond that, if successful, this puts us on an inevitable collision course, with those who rule, those who enjoy privilege and power through exploitation, domination and treachery.
Ujamaa then, becomes a bold challenge, an act of righteous revolution against this system, that engorges itself by preying on us here in the diaspora and those in the motherland.
Ujamaa, is unity expressed in the process of collective responsibility, to achieve sovereignty- self-determination in taking care of our collective, economic well being.

Peace

Ujima

Greetings Family
Reflecting on this third day of Kwanzaa, Ujima, the following thoughts emerged and I would like to share them with you, if okay.
In thinking of Ujima, collective work and responsibility, the appreciation of relationships again comes forth as seminal to our liberation and development. Faced with significant personal and collective challenge, the need for nourishing experiences becomes even more profound.
This nourishment can only be experienced by being present and truly appreciating the collective process, at work in our every moment of existence and I guess beyond.
That the workers and their families the multitude of other humans, who make it possible for us to soak away our worries in a warm bath, or produce this medium that we are now using, etc, etc., are all contributing, working collectively to produce with us this experience called life.
In that consciousness, it becomes possible to rise to and above the challenges of struggle and embrace to wonderful offerings of the universe.
Our very definition of achievement, of well being, of victory changes, e.g. finance capital, is no longer the "bottom line", the ultimate the determining factor, but again the quality of our engagement as we discharge our collective responsibilities. On the finance question, check out Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's comments on the role of money in our liberation.
Likewise we, even despite ourselves, contribute continuously to the lives of others, contributions that will linger, long after we have transcended this realm of existence.
The conscious experience of working for the human rights and dignity of our people is an opportunity not only to contribute and reap objective benefits, but in many ways to be present at that ever evolving circle of creation. Ujima therefore, is not only a wonderful productive process, but an affirmation of our the inherent creative potential, possible in our every encounter, every relationship.

Since tomorrow is Ujamaa, I think it would be useful to revisit, the work of Mwalimu, particularly the Arusha Declaration.

Peace