Flashback: Black lives matter; All lives matter

CC™ Breaking Bread - E.O. Eke 

The horrific suffocation of George Floyd, by the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, has not only shocked and enraged the world it has once again brought the surface the degree of hatred, prejudice and wickedness inspired by race that still exist in the hearts of some human beings.

George Floyd is the latest addition to a gallery of victims of US police brutality, against black peoples: Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile and Freddie Gray, are examples of black men who have been murdered by American police.

In spite of outrage like the one we are witnessing today, black people continue to suffer prejudiced treatment in the hands of some white people and institutions in many white dominated countries.

The killing of Mr Floyd by a group of white American police men is a heinous and despicable crime which offends humanity.

I would like to say that it is not only blacks in America that are suffering the kind of injustice that led to the death of George Floyd . In Nigeria, police brutality of the type that claimed the life of George Floyd is routine and currently there is a Fulani knee on the neck of Nigerians.

On 7 and 8 June, 2005, six young Nigerians, 5 men and one woman of Igbo extraction, Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyin Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna and Anthony and Augustina Arebu were murdered in cold blood by members of Nigerian police led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Danjuma Ibrahim. Mr Danjuma is still wearing the uniform of the Nigerian police.

In July 16 2019, Mr Chinedu Obi, aka ‘Zinquest’ an Igbo was arrested by the Nigerian Police for being covered in tattoos, wearing a gold chain and in possession of an expensive I-phone.The police shot him and then watched him bleed to death. These are just two examples from many.

These crimes against humanity continue to take place because the Fulani caliphate hijacked Nigeria, through a rouge constitution after the civil war.

What else can I say, when the game keeper is the poacher? What hope has the sheep, when the Shepard is a wolf? What future has Nigeria, when the Nigerian government is on the side of Fulani terrorists?

In Nigeria it is one rule for Fulanis and another for others. Fulani terrorists masquerading as cattle rearers carry AK 47 openly in Nigeria, but the police arrests others with legal gun licence because they are from other ethnic groups. The Buhari government has pursued a policy of disarming ordinary Nigerians, while aiding Fulani terrorists to arm.

Fulani terrorists are free to operate from their bases in forests, where they are supplied with Nigerian military helicopters and the world looks on.

White police officers kills one black man, thirty cities in America erupt in violence, but Fulani terrorists wipe out villages after villages in Nigeria, and the Nigerian government, press and the world keep silent. Yes, it is right to protest against evils of the type claimed the life of George Floyd, but evil has no colour. Evil is pervasive.

I am forced to as; does black life matter, only when white People kill blacks? Does black life matter when black youth kill black youth in London? Does black matter when police from Islamic north Nigeria kill Christians southerners because of who they are? Who cares about the hundreds being killed daily in Nigeria by Fulani terrorists? Are they not black lives?

What can I say. Nigerians cry on. Maybe, one day, Nigerians will wake up from magical thinking and realise that people create their own heaven or hell and no people can progress, unless they take control and commit to change, evil will win.

I suppose Black people should also fight against tribalism, toxic ethnic nationalism, corruption, religious intolerance and terrorism. This is the way to demonstrate that indeed, Black livers matter.

The white knee on the neck of black George Floyd black neck made it impossible for him to breathe and he died while the other police men and many others stood by.

In a time like this, it is easy to forget who is a racist. A racist is not only a white police Officer with his knee on the neck of a black man.

It is any human being who restricts his goodness, justice and love to people of his race, religion, nationality and or ethnicity.

It is a person, who narrowly defines his goodness and finds good reasons to exclude others from it.

Whenever a human being finds good reason to do to others, what he or she would not want others to do him, members of his family and or ethnic and religious group, that individual is a racist, who has a suffocating knee on the neck of his victim.

A racist is a person who opposes a relationship because of tribal or ethnic and or religious differences.

A racist is a person who refuses to employ another on the basis of ethnicity, gender or religion.

A racist is a human being who discriminates on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexual orientation.

A racist is a prejudiced human being eaten up by hatred of those, who are different.

How does a man with a knee on his neck get up? While his knee was on my neck you passed by.

While his knee was on my neck, you looked away. While his knee was on my neck, you called me a criminal and a "nigger." While his knee was on my neck, what did you do? Indeed, all lives matter.

All lives matter. The colour of evil is not white. There are evil black and white peoples.

Every week in London, a black youth kills another black youth. White people spearheaded the abolition of slavery and many black peoples were involved in the slave trade. They sold blacks to whites as slaves. I have experienced evil from both whites and blacks. Evil has no colour.

It is important not to judge a race by the actions of a few people from the race. In the final analysis we are all belong to the human race and are individuals who are responsible for our actions.

If we are prepared to ascribe the evil of one individual to his race, we should also be ready to ascribe the goodness of another individual to his race.

We need to see people as individuals before the colour of their skin. We need to dig deeper. All lives matter do matter.

Freedom only comes when men reject the status quo and take control.

People overcome tyranny when they rise up to oppose evil and wrong, whenever they see it, no matter who is the victim.

It is time to demonstrate that Nigerian lives matter. It is time to end Fulani terrorism and police and, military brutality in Nigeria.

All lives matter. No one should have his knee on the neck of anther human being. End racism and ethnic nationalism, and terrorism. Embrace equality under the law and justice as fairness for all. All lives matter.

Putin warns West it is leading the world towards a potential nuclear confrontation

CC™ Headline News

President Vladimir Putin has warned of a “real” risk of nuclear war if the West escalates the conflict in Ukraine, offering a defiant and emboldened stance in his annual speech to Russians.

Speaking in Moscow, Putin said his soldiers were advancing in Ukraine and warned the West of “tragic consequences” for any country that dared to send troops to Kyiv.

They have announced the possibility of sending Western military contingents to Ukraine. The consequences for possible interventionists will be much more tragic,” he said in his address to the nation.

“They should eventually realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. Everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilisation,” said Putin.

His comments appeared to be a response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal earlier this week to rule out sending troops to Ukraine — a stance that drew swift rejection from other leaders in Europe.

Nevertheless, the debate has struck a nerve in Moscow, which has long seen its conflict with Ukraine as part of a wider “hybrid war” being waged against it by NATO.

Western leaders have repeatedly criticised Putin for what they see as his reckless use of nuclear rhetoric.

After pulling Russia out of arms control treaties with the United States and previously warning he was “not bluffing” when he said he was ready to use nuclear weapons, Putin had appeared in recent months to dial down his nuclear threats.

But the fresh warning comes with the Kremlin buoyed by recent gains on the battlefield in Ukraine, but also an economy that has largely defied sanctions and ahead of an election certain to extend Putin’s term in the Kremlin until 2030.

- Russian forces ‘advancing’ -

The current state of affairs marks a sharp reversal in fortunes for Moscow over the last 12 months.

Last year at this time, Russian troops were reeling from Ukrainian counteroffensives that pushed them back in northeastern and southern Ukraine.

But after a Ukrainian campaign in the summer of 2023 failed to bring similar results, Kyiv is back on the defensive.

The initially strong Western support for Ukraine also appears to be fraying, with a $60-billion US aid package stalled in Congress.

Outgunning Ukrainian forces on the battlefield, Putin’s troops seized the eastern stronghold of Avdiivka and are attempting to build on their advances.

Putin on Thursday pointed to recent successes.

“The combat capacity of our armed forces has increased many times over,” he said.

“They are advancing confidently in a number of areas,” he added, without providing details.

Flanked by Russian tricolour flags and standing alone on stage at the Gostiny Dvor Palace near Moscow’s Red Square, the Russian leader reeled off his country’s arsenal of advanced weapons, including the Zircon and Kinzhal supersonic missiles.

But he slammed reports Russia was preparing to deploy a nuclear weapon in space as a “ploy” by Washington to draw Moscow into arms control talks “on their terms”.

- Election campaign -

Putin also touted Russia’s strong economic performance at home and outlined a number of small-scale domestic reforms as part of his pitch to Russians ahead of next month’s presidential election.

His speech was broadcast not only on state television but also on large digital screens and free of charge in cinemas across the country.

On the economic front, he said Russia was faring better than many expected.

Massive investment in military production, as well as high salaries and benefits for soldiers, has largely shielded the economy from the worst consequences of Western sanctions.

There is little doubt on the outcome of the March 15-17 vote, with all genuine opposition candidates barred from standing and the Kremlin’s most vocal critic Alexei Navalny now dead.

But Putin has still been campaigning, traveling around the country and making numerous media appearances since the start of the year, including recently flying a Russian bomber.

The 71-year-old former KGB officer, in power since the final day of 1999, is the longest serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin — a record he is set to pass during his next six-year term.

Even before Putin ordered forces into Ukraine in February 2022, he had increasingly portrayed himself as a defender of Russian values against a decadent, liberal and expansionist West.

He has used the military campaign to escalate a crackdown on domestic opponents, with hundreds prosecuted for criticising the Kremlin and its military offensive.

The speech came on the eve of a planned funeral for Putin’s top opponent Navalny, who died in prison on 16 February in unclear circumstances.

Putin, who famously never referred to the opposition leader by name, has remained silent on Navalny’s shock death that prompted outrage at home and abroad.

AFP

A TREACHEROUS GIFT AND POWER OF MANIPULATION

CC™ NewsPost

By Yahaya Balogun

"Saintly and well-behaved humans rarely make history. Humans who make history are very disruptive, honestly disrespectful to disrespectful humans, assertive toward manipulators, and respectful and honest to good humans. History is shaped not by the virtuous only, but by those who stand boldly against the manipulative, show respect to the noble, and challenge the unruly humans." -- Yahaya Balogun.

I considered giving this mindfulness piece the intriguing title 'A Good Human is a Dangerous Human' to infuse it with a more profound, nuanced significance. However, the current title resonates better and conveys the essence of the essay more clearly! It depicts the hackable nature of vulnerable minds, with the unhackable minds to their rescue. 

The two quotes above explore the intricate depths of our human essence. Throughout the ages, many notable figures have boldly challenged societal norms, fueled by a commitment to values like honesty, dignity, respect, and the esteem of others.

In stark contrast, those who have receded into the shadows often cling to shallow attempts at proving their worth, all while they remain ensnared in the deceptive calm known as the "peace of the graveyard."

Anyone seeking to transform or confront a fragile society must brace themselves against the seductive charm of those who quietly wield influence and sow chaos. An intriguingly virtuous individual, who embraces “good trouble,” is driven by a profound empathy for fellow beings. Their own sense of well-being is intricately linked to the welfare of those around them.

In a world where the concept of normalcy is merely a façade, those who represent genuine normalcy appear as rare exceptions in a twisted society. At the same time, those exuding unconventionality are often celebrated as the standard. In other words, abnormalities are perceived as normal in an abnormal society, while normalities are underrated and disliked as abnormalities.

A truly outstanding person does not shy away from "good trouble"; instead, they skillfully navigate through it to provoke meaningful transformation. A harmless person is not synonymous with a virtuous one; indeed, the genuinely virtuous harness their inner perils with artfulness. They ignite “good troubles” to free society from the grips of tyranny and the manipulative tactics of Machiavellian leaders.

Though life offers no guarantees of fairness, equity, and equal justice before the law, those who embody virtue in a world of injustice present an exhilarating challenge, fanning the flames of equality. Just do good; the long-term rewards far outweigh the fleeting bad behavior or lasting consequences and the insidious or gradual harm of human manipulation.

Mile High Slap - President Emmanuel Macron denies dispute with wife, blames ‘disinformation’

CC™ NewsWeek

French President Emmanuel Macron denied Monday having a domestic dispute with his wife Brigitte after a video appeared to show her shoving his face away when they touched down for a visit to Vietnam, blaming disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage (below courtesy of The Sun).

The Elysee had been hoping that the visit to Vietnam would showcase France’s reach into the Indo-Pacific, but it has been shadowed by the incident which occurred as the doors of the presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi.

This is the third time this month that Macron has been the subject of viral video footage at a time when France says it is being targeted by repeated disinformation attacks as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine.

It was falsely claimed Macron took cocaine on a trip to Kyiv alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and images also emerged purporting to show Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dominate the French leader in a handshake.

Brigitte sticks out both her hands and gives her husband’s face a shove, according to footage shot by the Associated Press news agency.

The French president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. But with most of her body hidden by the aircraft, it is impossible to see his wife’s facial expression or body language.

“My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise,” he said.

Now it’s “become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories,” Macron told reporters.

Macron testily referred to the other incidents, including the images shot on a train to Kyiv where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine with Merz and Starmer.

But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue.

Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president’s finger at a summit.

“For three weeks… there are people who have watched videos and think I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a fight with the Turkish president, and that now I’m having a domestic dispute with my wife,” said Macron.

“None of these are true,” he said.

“Everyone needs to calm down,” he added.

After the incident in Hanoi, the couple proceeded down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Brigitte Macron did not take her husband’s arm when he offered it.

The video circulated rapidly online, promoted particularly by accounts that are habitually hostile to the French leader.

Macron’s office initially denied the authenticity of the images, before they were confirmed as genuine. A close associate of the president later described the incident as a couple’s harmless “squabble”.

Referring to the past incidents, Macron said: “In these three videos I took a tissue, shook someone’s hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more.”

“We have loads of accounts, anonymous or not, whose frustrations are going to their heads, including news commentators who said this morning that I have the diplomacy of a beaten man,” he added.

He emphasised that all three videos were “completely authentic” but the meanings attached to them were not.

Vietnam is the first stop on Macron’s almost week-long tour of Southeast Asia where he will pitch France as a reliable alternative to the United States and China.

He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.

The relationship between Macron, 47, and his 72-year-old wife has long been a subject of fascination at home and abroad.

She was a drama teacher and he a pupil when they met at a private school in their hometown of Amiens in northeast France. A mother of three children, Brigitte divorced her husband and began a relationship with Macron while he was in his late teens.

A high-profile first lady, she has taken legal action to counter false claims on social media about her gender.

SOURCE: AFP

As the Fulani Jihadist killing orgy continues, a Catholic priest and two others shot in Nigeria’s volatile North

CC™ Sunday News

The Catholic Priest in Charge of St. John Quasi Parish Jimba, Rev. Fr. Solomon Atongu has been reportedly shot by suspected armed herdsmen along the deadly Makurdi-Naka road.

The priest was shot Saturday evening while on his way from Makurdi back to his duty post in Naka when he drove into an ambush by the armed herdsmen.

It was also gathered that two other occupants of the vehicle were abducted by the armed men and whisked away into the forest after they mistook the clergy for dead.

“Luckily security personnel got to the scene of the attack and rescued the Priest who had already lost so much blood, and took him to hospital where efforts are being made by medical personnel to stabilise him,” he said.

While confirming the incident in a statement, the Chancellor, Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Revd. Fr. Shima Ukpanya, called for prayers for his quickly recovery.

Part of the statement read: “I write on behalf the Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Most Revd. Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, to inform and request for your prayers for the quick recovery of one of our Priests, Revd. Fr. Solomon Atongo who was attacked and shot this evening around Tyolaha, Makurdi-Naka Road, Gwer West Local Government Area, LGA, by suspected terrorist herdsmen.

“Let us unite in prayer for God’s healing upon him as the medics try to stabilize him. May our Lady Mother of Perpetual Help intercede for us.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent, CSP, Catherine Anene could not be reached.

Laura Ingraham: An epitome of hypocrisy and a walking contradiction of privileged ignorance

Laura Ingraham

CC™ Editorial 

By Deji Fashola (Contributing Editor)

One of the most consistent things in life is time. Time never fails to tell the story. The story of the day, the story of your life and the events that have shaped that very life; but even more importantly, time never fails to remind us of our past, with historical and poignant markers that speak to how our past actions ultimately determine where and who we are, or will become.

For Laura Ingraham, a talk show host of Fox News and someone whom I had never heard of until she name dropped basketball superstar, Lebron James, a few years ago by telling him to shut up and dribble, time has essentially encapsulated the very essence of her being, as it relates to her place in the evolving but contentious conversation about Americas contract with people of African descent, in particular.

I am not a consumer of American news as a matter of principle, be it CNN, Fox, MSNBC or any other alphabet news organization, but one thing I will say having had a glimpse of Fox news in particular, is that the latter (Fox news) is the most brazen attempt at instituting State-run TV in a country that is supposed to be the very epitome of democracy.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1268551040074383361

Time and time again, we are inundated with the Republican mantra that seemingly serves to eschew the tenets and principles of so-called conservative values. But, what exactly do these values entail. 

According to Laura Ingraham et al, conservative values seek to:

a) Preserve the sanctity of life pre-birth but seemingly abuse and devalue it after birth, especially if the life in question is of the wrong hue.

b) Promote avaricious greed that encourages limitless profit by a very limited few to the detriment of the overwhelming majority.

c) Encourage and promote governmental interference in the lives of others with the exception of those who profess a divine following of a God, whose commandments and ordinances they (the so-called conservatives) never abide by, but project and force on others who merely seek to live and let live.

d) Bully, vilify, slander, defame, abuse and in some cases, seek to intimidate with threats of violence those they disagree with, including defying constituted authority even though the latter's conduct and ordinances are within the framework of the laws and statutes of the land.

A perfect example of this vilification is the Republican messaging of referring to those who ask why the wealthiest nation on earth has more than half of its population without basic healthcare, as socialists.

These same conservatives (Republicans) have no problems though with the government giving away billions of dollars in corporate welfare to big corporations, deemed too big to fail. To them, the average American is too irrelevant and too small to succeed or be cared for, so long as Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom "call in the troops" Cotton, Josh "inordinate ambition" Hawley and the always opportunistic Rafael Ted Cruz line their pockets and those of their corporate benefactors.

e) Extol the virtues of democracy and civility when in the majority or win elections but then turn the same institution on its head, refusing to concede when you lose, and then seek to undermine and subvert the will of the people by judicial fiat. And when the latter fails, incite a violent insurrection against the duly elected leadership of the country, namely the Vice President and Congress, a co-equal branch of government, by a sitting President of the United States of America.

The four years of the Trump misrule of incompetence, laced with brazen nepotism, cronyism and racism, as well as unbridled corruption, was undoubtedly egged on by State TV (Fox News), with Sean Hannity (the former construction worker and high school dropout) and Laura Ingraham as the unofficial spokespersons of the Trump-led civilian junta. 

It remains to be seen if the resulting socio-political scars remain embedded in the mental and institutional psyche of the nation, for decades or even generations to come.

Exclusive: Watchdog finds Black girls face more frequent, severe discipline in school

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

CC™ Perspectives 

By Claudia Grisales 

Black girls face more discipline and more severe punishments in public schools than girls from other racial backgrounds, according to a groundbreaking new report set for release Thursday by a congressional watchdog. 

The report, shared exclusively with NPR, took nearly a year-and-a-half to complete and comes after several Democratic congressional members requested the study.

Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, later with support from Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, asked the Government Accountability Office in 2022 to take on the report.

The findings offer a first of its kind snapshot of the disciplinary disparities that Black girls face in public schools across the U.S. — often for similar behaviors. 

Over the course of the 85-page report, the GAO says it found that in K-12 public schools, Black girls had the highest rates of so-called "exclusionary discipline," such as suspensions and expulsions. Overall, the study found that during the 2017-18 school year, Black girls received nearly half of these punishments, even as they represent only 15% of girls in public schools. 

According to the report, Black girls accounted for 45% of out-of-school suspensions, 37% of in-school suspensions and 43% of expulsions for actions like "defiance, disrespect, and disruption." Nationally, Black girls received such exclusionary discipline at rates 3 to 5.2 times those of white girls. The study also found that when they had a disability, discipline rates for Black girls grew even larger.

"This new report, it's damning. It affirms what we've known all along that Black girls continue to face a crisis of criminalization in our schools," Pressley said. "And the only way we can address this crisis is through intentional, trauma-informed policy. And Congress must act."

The GAO report is the first to examine underlying infraction data among discipline disparities and identify what contributes to them, according to Pressley's office. It found that school poverty levels, the percentage of girls facing disabilities, the number of new teachers and the presence of a school resource officer were among the factors tied to increased discipline for girls.

For her part, Pressley said it's clear that racism, colorism and other biases such as adultification — or perceiving girls as older and more mature than their peers — also contribute to the harsher discipline of Black girls.

Pressley and other women members of Congress are set to present the findings on Thursday.

“I hope that, because of these important findings, schools across the country and policymakers at every level of government examine the use of exclusionary discipline policies that are disproportionately harming Black girls,” said DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The report found that punishments grow more dramatically in cases of girls who present with additional levels of diversity, such as Black girls who are also part of the LGBTQ community. Pressley said that the biased discipline patterns are deeply harmful, contributing to low self-esteem while detracting from students' ability to learn.

SOURCE: NPR

The toxic legacy of the Confederacy and why the monuments remain a painful vestige of its sordid past

Caroline Randall Williams

By Caroline Randall Williams

I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South. 

If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they want monuments, well, then, my body is a monument. My skin is a monument. 

Dead Confederates are honored all over this country — with cartoonish private statues, solemn public monuments and even in the names of United States Army bases. It fortifies and heartens me to witness the protests against this practice and the growing clamor from serious, nonpartisan public servants to redress it. 

But there are still those — like President Trump and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell — who cannot understand the difference between rewriting and reframing the past. I say it is not a matter of “airbrushing” history, but of adding a new perspective. 

I am a black, Southern woman, and of my immediate white male ancestors, all of them were rapists. My very existence is a relic of slavery and Jim Crow. 

According to the rule of hypodescent (the social and legal practice of assigning a genetically mixed-race person to the race with less social power) I am the daughter of two black people, the granddaughter of four black people, the great-granddaughter of eight black people. Go back one more generation and it gets less straightforward, and more sinister. As far as family history has always told, and as modern DNA testing has allowed me to confirm, I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help. 

It is an extraordinary truth of my life that I am biologically more than half white, and yet I have no white people in my genealogy in living memory. No. Voluntary. Whiteness. I am more than half white, and none of it was consensual. White Southern men — my ancestors — took what they wanted from women they did not love, over whom they had extraordinary power, and then failed to claim their children. 

What is a monument but a standing memory? An artifact to make tangible the truth of the past. My body and blood are a tangible truth of the South and its past. The black people I come from were owned by the white people I come from. The white people I come from fought and died for their Lost Cause. And I ask you now, who dares to tell me to celebrate them? Who dares to ask me to accept their mounted pedestals? 

You cannot dismiss me as someone who doesn’t understand. You cannot say it wasn’t my family members who fought and died. My blackness does not put me on the other side of anything. It puts me squarely at the heart of the debate. I don’t just come from the South. I come from Confederates. I’ve got rebel-gray blue blood coursing my veins. My great-grandfather Will was raised with the knowledge that Edmund Pettus was his father. Pettus, the storied Confederate general, the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, the man for whom Selma’s Bloody Sunday Bridge is named. So I am not an outsider who makes these demands. I am a great-great-granddaughter. 

And here I’m called to say that there is much about the South that is precious to me. I do my best teaching and writing here. There is, however, a peculiar model of Southern pride that must now, at long last, be reckoned with. 

This is not an ignorant pride but a defiant one. It is a pride that says, “Our history is rich, our causes are justified, our ancestors lie beyond reproach.” It is a pining for greatness, if you will, a wish again for a certain kind of American memory. A monument-worthy memory. 

But here’s the thing: Our ancestors don’t deserve your unconditional pride. Yes, I am proud of every one of my black ancestors who survived slavery. They earned that pride, by any decent person’s reckoning. But I am not proud of the white ancestors whom I know, by virtue of my very existence, to be bad actors. 

Among the apologists for the Southern cause and for its monuments, there are those who dismiss the hardships of the past. They imagine a world of benevolent masters, and speak with misty eyes of gentility and honor and the land. They deny plantation rape, or explain it away, or question the degree of frequency with which it occurred. 

To those people it is my privilege to say, I am proof. I am proof that whatever else the South might have been, or might believe itself to be, it was and is a space whose prosperity and sense of romance and nostalgia were built upon the grievous exploitation of black life. 

The dream version of the Old South never existed. Any manufactured monument to that time in that place tells half a truth at best. The ideas and ideals it purports to honor are not real. To those who have embraced these delusions: Now is the time to re-examine your position. 

Either you have been blind to a truth that my body’s story forces you to see, or you really do mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed, and you must at last acknowledge your emotional investment in a legacy of hate. 

Either way, I say the monuments of stone and metal, the monuments of cloth and wood, all the man-made monuments, must come down. I defy any sentimental Southerner to defend our ancestors to me. I am quite literally made of the reasons to strip them of their laurels. 

Caroline Randall Williams(@caroranwill) is the author of “Lucy Negro, Redux” and “Soul Food Love,” and a writer in residence at Vanderbilt University. Ms. Williams' oped piece was originally published in the New York Times. 

Thoughts and Perspectives…..

Thoughts and Perspectives.....

There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they have ascribed unto themselves the dubious distinction of being all-knowing, and all-conquering…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because their greed and avarice has overtaken their sense of humanity, fairness and compassion…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they have killed their conscience and ultimately succeeded in shutting the window to their soul…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they do not have it in them to see ahead, and as such, they must continually look back…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they are conditioned to forever sell their souls to the devil…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they are devoid of even the slightest ounce of human decency and integrity…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because not only are they bereft of ideas, but more importantly, they are lacking in courage and a sense of devoir…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because of their penchant for obfuscating diatribes…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because of their inherent sense of inferiority feigned by a debilitating superiority complex…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because their antecedents tell you they are eternal rogues, liars and marauders…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because of their disposition to being not only deceitful, but also, exceedingly treacherous…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… but would rather dibble, dabble and dicker…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they would rather destroy than build…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because their very being serves to be, the manifestation of an anathema…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they have never known or felt the brunt of their misgivings and past misdeeds…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… but prefer to see themselves as victims, even though the overwhelming evidence, is to the contrary…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… but would rather engage in the art of "Water Power" all in a bid to fulfill their hidden agenda…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they will forever moan about their "plight", but conveniently forget, that you reap what you sow…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they will forever revel in the art of debauchery…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because of their jaundiced penchant for revisionist history…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because of their susceptibility to calculated miscalculations…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because of their disposition to selective encumbrances…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because rather than act as leaders, they see themselves as rulers…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because as Baruch Spinoza once stated, "their self-complacency has become pleasure accompanied by the idea of them as cause…"
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they do not know any better, but refuse to ask how to…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they know better, but prefer not to act accordingly…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they have lost their way and insist on remaining in a
State of flux…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because rather than look within, they would much rather look without…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they are as clueless as to the objectivity of sense, as they are to their sense of objectivity…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they spit in our faces and tell us it’s raining…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they tell us good morning although the sun has just set…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because you and I have never asked them why…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because you and I have never asked them how…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because you and I have never asked them when…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because you and I have never asked them where…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because you and I shed our blood to make them whole…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they underestimate our resolve and determination…
There are those…
Who will not let things be… because they do all these at their own peril…

© Boyejo Coker. All Rights Reserved

Ifá/Afa- A Computer Programmer’s Perspective

CC™ Opinion

By Eyes Sea

For some of us who earn our daily bread from programming computers (I have been doing this for over 2 decades), making the connection between Ifá binary notation and programming is a no brainer.

We programmers write codes/instructions (incantations) on the cpu – made from silicon (sand) to carry out our desires.

The parallel between a Babaláwo and a computer programmer is striking. We write on sand (silicon/cpu), a Babalawo writes on Iyerosun (camwood powder). We chant/write binary codes, a Babaláwo recites Odù Ifá!

In essence, a computer code is àfọ̀ṣẹ par excellence! In Yoruba, àfọ̀ṣẹ means “oun tí a fọ̀ tí ó sì ṣẹ” – something commanded to happen.

Our incantations (computer codes) can animate the entities in the cpu (sand) and make them become whatever we want: a game console, a financial trading system, an air traffic controller, facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Bitcoin etc.

How did this come about? Well, the Binary System makes this possible.

The Binary System of Ifá is based on the Yorùbá philosophical duality of Ibi and Ire (Evil and Good); for several millennia, the Yorùbá had been using the binary system before the German mathematician – Gottfried Leibniz formalised in 1679.

These days, the Binary Numeral System (Base 2) is well known in Mathematics and digital electronics and the system underpins how computers work by representing numeric values using just two digits – zero (0) and one (1)

In Computing, a Bit (i.e. BInary digiT) is the smallest unit of storage and can either be 1 or 0

A Nible (also called half Byte or semi-octet) is the grouping of four Bits e.g 0 1 0 1

In Ifá, Odù signatures are marked with “|” and “||”. Where “|” is the binary number “0” and “||” is “1”.

For example Ogbè (0000) has the following signature:
|
|
|
|

Ọ̀sá (1000) is represented as:
||
|
|
|

Òtúrá (0100) is marked as:
|
||
|
|

We can therefore summarise the representation of the first sixteen Odus as follows:
Decimal == Nibble == Odù
00 == 0000 == Ogbè
01 == 0001 == Ògúndá
02 == 0010 == Ìrẹtẹ̀
03 == 0011 == Ìrosùn
04 == 0100 == Òtúra
05 == 0101 == Ọ̀sẹ́
06 == 0110 == Èdí
07 == 0111 == Ọ̀bàrà
08 == 1000 == Ọ̀sá
09 == 1001 == Ìwòrì
10 == 1010 == Ọ̀̀fún
11 == 1011 == Ìká
12 == 1100 == Ọ̀wọ́nrín
13 == 1101 == Òtúrúpọ̀n
14 == 1110 == Ọ̀kànràn
15 == 1111 == Òyẹ̀kú
́
Since Ifá speaks only in binary (Odu Èjì Ogbè says: “Èjèèji ni mo gbè, n ò gbe ọ̀kan ṣoṣo mọ́” i.e “I will only support two, I will not support one”), each Odu must be paired.

For example, after pairing the main Odu, we get the following (see graphic for the main Odu signature)

Èjì Ogbè (also called Ògbè Méjì): 00000000
Ògúndá Méjì : 00010001
Ìrẹtẹ̀ Méjì : 00100010
Ìrosùn Méjì : 00110011
Òtúrá Méjì : 01000100
Ọ̀sẹ́ Méjì : 01010101
Èdí Méjì : 01100110
Ọ̀bàrà Méjì : 01110111
Ọ̀ṣá Meji: 10001000
Ìwòrì Méjì : 10011001
Ọ̀fún Méjì : 10101010
Ìká Méjì :10111011
Ọ̀wọ́nrín Méjì :11001100
Òtúrúpọ̀n Méjì :11011101
Ọ̀kànràn Méjì :11101110
Ọ̀yẹ̀kú Méjì : 11111111

The other 240 minor Odus are derived from the main 16 Odus.
For example (note: the binary notation and the marks are read from right to left)

Ogbè-Ògúndá : 0001-0000
| |
| |
| |
|| |

Ọ̀yẹ̀kú-Ìrẹtẹ̀ : 0010-1111
| ||
| ||
|| ||
| ||

Computers also speak in binary and binary numbers can be converted to decimal, hexadecimal, octal etc.

Without getting into too much math, below are the decimal values of the 16 main Odu:
00000000 = 00
00010001 = 17
00100010 = 34
00110011 = 51
01000100 = 68
01010101 = 85
01100110 = 102
01110111 = 119
10001000 = 136
10011001 = 153
10101010 = 170
10111011 = 187
11001100 = 204
11011101 = 221
11101110 = 238
11111111 = 255

Below is a computer machine code that adds the numbers from 1 to 10 together and prints out the result:

i.e. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55

0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

In Ifa, the patterns of bits above translate to…
ọ̀wọ́nrín-ọ̀sá èjì-ogbè èjì-ogbè
ọ̀wọ́nrín-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá
ọ̀wọ́nrín-méjì ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọtúrá
ọ̀fùn-ọ̀sá ogbè-òtúrùpọ̀n ogbè-ọtúrá
ọtúrá-méjì ogbe-ọtúrá ogbè-ògúndá
ìrẹtẹ̀-ọ̀wọ́nrín ogbè-ọ̀sá èjì-ogbè
ìrẹtẹ̀-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá
ọ̀sá-ogbè ogbè-ọtúrá èjì-ogbè
èdì-ọtúrá èjì-ogbè èjì-ogbè

This was how programmers used to write computer programs before high level programming languages like Fortran and Lisp were created in 1957 and 1958 respectively.

For programmers, entering these patterns manually was a laborious, tedious and error-prone task. Even for a seasoned programmer, it could get dizzy and nauseating after assembling a couple of these patterns.

However, a competent Ifá priest can commit to memory 256 of these patterns without breaking a sweat and able to recite close to 4,000 Ifá verses by heart!

Effectively, the meaning of the 1s and 0s in the code above is as follows:

1. Store the number 0 in memory location 0.
2. Store the number 1 in memory location 1.
3. Store the value of memory location 1 in memory location 2.
4. Subtract the number 11 from the value in memory location 2.
5. If the value in memory location 2 is the number 0 continue with instruction 9.
6. Add the value of memory location 1 to memory location 0.
7. Add the number 1 to the value of memory location 1.
8. Continue with instruction 3.
9. Output the value of memory location 0.

Using names in place of numbers for memory and instruction locations, we can do the following:
Set the value of “total” to 0.
Set the value of “count” to 1.
[loop]
Set the value of “compare” to the “count” value.
Subtract 11 from the value of “compare” .
If “compare” is zero, continue at [end].
Add “count” to the value of “total”.
Add 1 to the value of “count”.
Continue at [loop].
[end]
Output “total”.

In a modern programming language like Python, we can write the following:

total = 0
count = 1
while count <= 10:
total = total + count
count = count + 1
print total

In 2017, I wrote series of programming tutorials on this wall using the Python programming language. In the coming series of articles, I will translate the posts into Yoruba so stay tuned.

Ire o.

Credit:Ifá – Olobe Yoyon

SOURCE: rymcitigh