LIVE, LOVE & LEARN,   GROW & SHARE 

"By the time we leave for work, Americans have depended on the inventions from the minds of Blacks."

           -Martin Luther king JR.

Come with me; let’s take a long leisurely stroll into a twilight zone, a world without black contributions!

·       There will be no sky scrapers because Alexander mils wouldn’t have existed to invent the elevator

·       There wouldn’t have been an automatic gearshift because Richard Spikes was black

·       Loads of accidents and chaos cause Garret A. Morgan wouldn’t have lived to invent the traffic signal and

·       Joseph Gambol, wouldn’t be there to invent the Super Charge System for Internal Combustion Engines

·       Furthermore, we would not avail of the rapid transit system because its procurer was the electric trolley, which was invented by Albert R.Robinson-another black man!

·       Every street would have been dirty! Because Charles Brooks invented the street sweeper

·       John love invented the pencil sharpener, so we need not use a knife and William Purvey invented the fountain pen

·        Lee Barrage invented the type writing Machine and W.A.Love invented the Advanced printing press. yeah you guessed it right...and they were Black

·       Even if people still wrote letters, articles and books, they would not be transported by mail because William Barry invented the postmarking and cancelling machine

·       William Purvey invented the hand stamp and Philip Downing invented the letter drop.

·       Those pretty lawns you see? They’d be ug-gu-ly, brown and wilted cause Joseph smith wouldn’t have invented the lawn mower

·       Our homes would have been poorly heated and unventilated cause there’d be no Frederick Jones to invent the Air Conditioner and in Europe sooooo cold cause Alice parker would live to invent the heating furnance.

·       Our homes would have been soo dim cause Lewis Lattimer later invented the electric lamp,

·       Michael Harvey the lantern and Granville T.Woods the Automatic cut off switch

·       We would have had filthy homes because Thomas W.Steward invented the mop  and P.Ray the dust pan

·       Children wouldn’t have looked so good cause Jan E.Matzelinger invented the shoe lasting machine and Walter Sammons invented the comb.

·       Might be we’d all have ironed on the floor or on tables but Sarah Boone invented the ironing board and George T.Samon invented the clothes dryer.

Ah here we are a table at last, alas! The food is spoilt because John standard invented the Refrigerator.

What Black History Month Means to me as an African

                                    What Black History Month Means to me as an African?

"A people without the knowledge

Of their past history, origin and culture,

Is like a tree without roots."

                                                                      - The Rt. Hon. Marcus Garvey

Yeah right! Ask that question out loud, I thought I heard you ask-are you black American? Celebrating black history month is more than just being American or British! It’s more to do with identifying with who you are! Be you a black-American, black-British, black–Caribbean, Black -African, Black-Irish, Black-Scottish...am I making some sense here?

Walk with me,

Fela Ransom-Kuti ,Bob Marley, Chinua Achebe and Maya Angelou, Wole Soyinka , Nelson Mandela, Mary,J.B, Angelique kidjo, India Irie ,Jill Scot, Gladys knight ,Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill ,Akon, Wyclef jean, Don Omar, Alexander Burke, Beyonce, Jay-z, Mitchell and Barak Obama, Rihanna, Drake, Fally pupa, Tracy Chapman, Neyo, Desmond Tutu, Malcolm X, Martin Luther king, Adele Emeli Sandé, Christopher Robert Iwelumo, Olaudah Equiano,Phil Lynott,Samantha Mumba... now do you get my drift ?

Common!

Black History Month started in 1926 in the United States it was instituted by Carter G Woodson as a way of responding to the view that the Black Americans and people of African descent had made no significant contribution to human civilisation. In the United States it is celebrated in February of every year.

 Black History Month was first celebrated in the UK in 1987, as a way of exposing black teenagers to their rich cultural heritage, which is not often exposed or celebrated in mainstream history! In recent times it has become a time to celebrate our ancestry as Africans. It is celebrated every month of October.

Now open your minds to some facts, as this is a time to engage in thought provocative entertainment, the likes that connects you to your inner being and liberates your mind in hopes of deep insight.

There would have been nothing like black history month, if millions of Africans had not been forcibly shipped into slavery, disseminated to various parts of the world and had their ancestral memory wiped or hidden from them!

There would have been nothing like Black history month, If Black achievements, the Nubian pharaohs, the West African Empires and others had not been ignored in conventional history. We needn’t have bothered with these special measures to restore our worth and stir up motivation among our people.

If black entertainers, sport people, poets and writers, Black achievers of diverse nations ,were not repeatedly and exclusively paraded and proclaimed as notable "role models" as though the Arts ,entertainments and sports were the only areas where black people have or could excel; then perhaps there would have been no point to Black History Month!

If Black History hadn’t been sidelined, subjected to distortion, denial, and deconstruction there would have been no point celebrating black history month.

Got it?

Black history month is a time to promote our history and experience, ours is a story of resilience and perseverance, a time to disseminate information on positive contributions attained by black people; it is most of all a time to heighten awareness and certitude in the richness of our cultural heritage!

This is a chance to revel in our blackness, a chance to get on with that swag God gave us naturally and roll whatever shade you might be -Hot chocolate, Brown- sugar, Tan, Cream, Whipped cream...(LOL), we know us when we see us! It’s in our walk...our talk...in our dance ...OUR COMMON ROOTS!

Your Gist Mate,

Shy

Hello every body! its Black history month

Answers! I need answers

                                                    Answers! I need answers

As we celebrate our 52^nd independence day, I am curled up dreaming on my bed, sulking actually! It’s raining out here, really cold! But bearable at least as I am indoors and thankfully do not intend to go out, so here I ‘am sulking and wondering when I’d ever get answers to these questions that keep reoccurring in my head. I have tried to shake them off all day, to no avail.

So now, yours truly is compelled to write these questions that bother me, on a day am supposed to be proudly dressed in a green dress complete with white stilettos, I am moved by an intensity that burns, a vehemence that I can taste on my lips and a deep regret that makes me pace my room to and fro, wondering if there are like minds tortured by the need for answers like me.

·         Can Nigeria claim to be truly integrated as a nation? Recent security challenges and terrorism has become the order of the day and it is disguised as activism. It has become clear that the high and mighty in society aid this ugly trend with impunity.

·         We were a nation that survived solely on Agriculture ans so I ask, how did we suddenly walk into the farce of depending only on petroleum? Where are the groundnut pyramids, the cocoa plantations and the rubber farmers?

·         Where are the visionaries? Don't they exist in Nigeria? Tenure elongation has become an accepted norm, most administrations turn despotic, in a bid to secure more time to loot public funds, it is disgusting to see religious leaders become their allies despite their open fraudulence.

·         What is the hope for the Nigerian youth dreams, aspiration and vision! Where is our voice in all of this-has it ever mattered?

·         And the Nigerian police? They are a farce!  We all in open agreement believe they ought to be stuck out. Re-branding is a waste of a word on them! The impunity with which they throw caution to the winds while demanding for twenty Naira notes is an eye sore to put it mildly.

Face book didn't do its magic for me today; yours truly has a friend who seems to shares the same need for answers, only he had dared to address us all in his literary best! With his kind permission, I quote;

‘...The Nigerian Government is the best in the world. Who is Obama where Jonathan stands? With all his good luck as well? Our able Politicians have put policies in place to ensure the rights of every Nigerian are upheld. Kidnapping? No kidnapping. With the police we have any oyibo can walk the streets of warri without fear. Bribes have been quashed. Nobody touches it anymore. Yes that is Nigeria for you.Em..., barman abi is it barmen. Give me more of that vodka!’

Well Vodka no be my size, so I have ordered a pint of Guinness! Abi? My people I deserve to smile today o, weather the devil like am or not! As Santosh Kalwar says,

                 “I was smiling yesterday, I am smiling today and I will smile tomorrow.

                            Simply because life is too short to cry for anything”

Yours in gist

Shy