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The use of forum, colloquium, and festivals to center African/a intellectual creative cultural production flows rhythmically alongside the long tradition of Pan-African tendencies. 

This historical continuity and our duty to move within its legacy is a project that the International Colloquium at the International Black Theatre Festival, that we [AWNP collective] have the pleasure to coordinate, is the explicit dictum that guides it creation. Furthering our work in this Pan-African genealogy is intentional. 

Our theme this year was titled: ‘Echoes of FESTAC ’77’.

For the 2024 iteration of the international colloquium, as we continue think deeply about form and function and its relationship to critical consciousness formation and radical practice in the use of the arts to map and proliferate Black/African sociopolitical and cultural life, we had the pleasure of being in dialogue with Dr. Abdul Alkalimat, who was at FESTAC ’77 [for more, visit https://www.alkalimat.org/festac/].  

In fact, you will hear his presentation given at FESTAC ’77 in this program. 

As part of a consortium of cultural workers, intellectuals, activists/organizers, Dr. Alkalimat along with Dr. Ron Walters, Dr. Maulana Karenga, and a host of others took part in the colloquium. 

Dr. Abdul Alkalimat is one of the founders of Black Studies and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. A lifelong scholar/organizer with a PhD from the University of Chicago, he has lectured, taught, and directed academic programs across the U.S., the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and China.

I would be remiss to not highlight that along with Dr. Alkalimat, we were joined by artists and cultural scholars from Nova Scotia, Canada, where they explored the continuities in the histories of people of African descent in Canada. 

We had the pleasure to be in conversation with Walter Borden as he presented: The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time, a powerful autobiographical play and the story of Walter Borden’s life, his life’s work, and his letter to the world. An artist and cultural worker, Mr. Borden is an internationally acclaimed and nationally honoured African/Indigenous actor and activist born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. His activism spans six decades while his professional acting career is in its 54th year. He has performed throughout Canada, Europe and the United States.

We look to bring you his thoughts and meditations in the coming programs on Africa World Now Project.

As you prepare to engage this program … we share this meditation we hope will guide you as you share your time and energy with us …

The universe of thought and ideas are the playground of Africana creativity. Black life lives on the fulcrum of the seen and unseen, constantly merging theory and practice … Effortlessly creating, recreating – through radical acts of remembering moving in and out of the deep well of Africana ways of being and forms of knowing, this is the essence of Black cultural production, the production of life itself.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayati; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly.


Link to paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h_NFkkpy8dSySP6PtmqjBF5aM-3aTM8m/view?usp=sharing

echoes of FESTAC '77 w/ Bro Abdul Alkalimat

The collectively generative nature inherent in the interdependent relationship between technology, the communal means of production and distribution and innovative physical and creative intellectual work is distracted and co/opted by the need to extract the value of this relationship as structured from the capitalist logic of labor. The sole purpose of this is to maintain an aggressive and exclusionary accumulation of capital in the hands of a few.

The creative and inquisitive nature of human social and cultural capacities feed the extractive forces of capitalism. The necessity to disembody knowledge production and sever the symbiotic relationship between all sentient beings from nature and the universe is a muti-complex process of maintaining the supremacist ethic that organizes current political and economic relations. 

This fact, in its most theoretical and practical form, permeates the very cultural fabric of the dominant expression of global dis/order. 
In short, capitalism is the form that functions to create life itself, therefore work is re/defined as labor in order to extract its value in all forms, not for communal benefit but the aggressive and exclusionary aggregation of capital through intentionally violent processes.

What are the material and intellectual contractions that indigenous African and African Diasporan communities must contend with in order to reconcile the social realities produced by capitalist logic today? At present, the dominant discourses of this reconciliation are centered around inherently detrimental practices, i.e., capitalism with a Blackface, the reproduction of the logic of  private property as foundation to capital accumulation, etc. 

Where do we re/turn to find a path toward freedom as move down the road to liberation? Where do we find a platform or practice to reintegrate with our collective selves? 

It can be, and in the conversation with Georie Bryant you will hear next, found figuratively and literally with our hands in the soil. 

A re/connection with the Earth itself. In a material and non-material synthesis of struggle and building. 

The conversation you will hear next is a de/linking of capitalist logic of land as private property, food as African indigenous knowledge practices, and cooperatives outside of capitalist interpretations. 
In short, we explore African indigenous relationships with land and food, as inherited throughout the African world as means to freedom. 

Georie Bryant is a community organizer, chef, and agriculturalist native to Durham, N.C. Working both through his organization SymBodied and in collaboration with other organizations in the region, Georie seeks to address issues of historical and contemporary oppression, particularly those centered around food insecurity, cultural erasure and appropriation.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayati; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly.

land food & freedom w/ Georie Bryant

Nature's Song

Nature Is Magic

In the introduction of his recently published, Jacob H Carruthers and the Restoration of An African Worldview: Finding Our Way through the Desert, Kamau Rashid [2024] posits that: 

“One of the central concerns evident in the scholarship of Jacob H. Carruthers was the intellectual foundations of the modern world. Although he acknowledged the importance of studying systems of oppression, he argued that such structures rested upon the foundation of Western thought, forms of knowledge that facilitated the formation of our most current systems of domination. In addition, these forms of knowledge also serve the primary function to maintain a particular world order as their application is constantly being refined and reinforced through false ideas about reality [Rashid, 2024; Carruthers, 1972/1999]. 

Carruthers work is occupied by a fundamental question that asks: how can African people who hope to free themselves from these structural and reinforcing mechanisms of domination do so when their conceptions of reality are constantly measured and derived from these very same ways of knowing that support these mechanisms of domination?

Kamau Rashid, thinking with Carruthers, writes further that “knowledge, its production, legitimization, and transmission are shaped by the power relations of a society and through this, society’s institutions, therefore “the elite members of the politically dominant culture strategically impose their knowledge and worldview priorities” in a way that legitimizes their authority through these institutions [Rashid, 2024; Shujaa, 2003, 18]. 

Accordingly, there is little room for debate when it is argued that “schooling in the United States is a principal instrument of this hegemony.” “It is a process that does not typically privilege critical thought and action, but instead encourages conformity to hegemony, rewards apathy to the status quo, and punishes agency with regard to ideation or advocacy for revolutionary social change. From this perspective, it is with no surprise then, that “the operationalization of schooling is little more than a means for sustaining the legitimacy for a specific form of sociopolitical and economic order [Rashid, 2024].

Kamau Rashid on Jacob H. Carruthers & an restoration of an african worldview

The official audio for "Welcome Back" from Ant's album Collection of Sounds Vol. 3.

LISTEN/BUY: https://rse.lnk.to/COSV3
VINYL/CASSETTE/MERCH: https://AtmosphereSucks.com

SONG CREDITS:
Produced by Anthony “Ant” Davis.
Mixed by Anthony “Ant” Davis.
Mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound.

Ant - Welcome Back

The idea of democracy and its attendant operative mechanism, democratic citizenship, specifically the right to belong, is often lauded as a gift of Greco-Roman sociopolitical thought and Western European and American cultural contributions to a specific conceptualization of what comes to be known, in academic discourse, ‘modernity.’ 

From this historico-cultural perspective, a concept was needed to determine what it means to be human and belong in a particular form of sociopolitical organization and economic logic.

However, moving beyond rhetoric and paying critical attention to the origins of this worldview, democratic citizenship—as expounded by the Athenians, the lauded form of sociopolitical organization that was intellectualized by an Athenian elite class—was conceptualized to exclude others.  

The inclusion of ‘Others’ was seen as a negation of order and the rule of law. 
After all, was it not Aristotle who invoked the notion of ius sanguinis (meaning ‘right of blood,’ or ‘by blood’) to be an exclusionary tool serving the interest of the dominant class? 

This operative mechanism in the application of ‘democracy’ or democratic citizenship as formulated in this cultural worldview was/is structured in the fabric of political discourse we hear today. 

What is clear in our current historical epoch, as Modibo Kadalie aptly points out, younger people “are convinced that the nation-state is not offering them a future. Newer generations of researchers are now beginning to look for evidence of community and collectivity” (Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, The Great Dismal Swamp and The Human Quest for Freedom: 153). A collectivity that lies in the very fabric of Africana forms of knowing and ways of being, fully articulated in the various forms of resistance such as those found throughout the Americas, expressed as maroon communities.

Dr. Modibo Kadalie is a social ecologist, movement intellectual and lifelong radical activist within the Civil Rights, Black Power and Pan-Africanist movements and the Founding Convener of the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology (ARIDDSE). 

He is the author of Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations and Essays (2019); Internationalism, Pan-Africanism and the Struggle of Social Classes (2000); Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Human Quest for Freedom (2022) and a number of other articles.

During the 1960s, early and middle 1970’s, Modibo Kadalie was an active member of a number of radical formations. In the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), he served as a member of the Central Staff and Chair of the People’s Action Committee in Highland Park, Michigan. In the International African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC), Kadalie was a founding member of the National Steering Committee. He chaired the Detroit local committee in 1972 and 1973 and then continued as a member of the expanded International Steering Committee as a representative from Atlanta, 1973-1975. Within this Sixth Pan-African Congress, he chaired the Southern Regional Organizing Committee from 1974-1975 and was also a member of both the North American Delegation and the North American Left Revolutionary Pan-African Caucus.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

listen intently. think critically. act accordingly. 

reflections on autonomy, direct democracy & marronage w/ Modibo Kadalie Pt. I

What you will hear next is Pt II of a four (4) part series where we explore, autobiographically, the origins of Modibo Kadalie’s perspectives on direct democracy, autonomy, Black radical labor history, and Pan Africanism. 

Pt. II builds upon the autobiographical framework, Modibo outlined in Pt. I [so, do not forget to tap in].

This part of the conversation will explore, in more detail, Modibo’s experience in Detroit, paying attention to the efforts to develop a sharper analysis that can inform various movements more clearly, then and now. 

Pt. IV will provide a few thoughts on moving forward.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

listen intently. think critically. act accordingly. 


reflections on autonomy, direct democracy & marronage w/ Modibo Kadalie Pt. II

What you will hear next is Pt III of a four (4) part series where we explore, autobiographically, the origins of Modibo Kadalie’s perspectives on direct democracy, autonomy, Black radical labor history, and Pan Africanism. 

Pt. I + II builds upon the Modibo’s autobiographical framework [so, do not forget to tap in].

Pt. III will explore, in more detail, Modibo’s experience in Detroit, paying attention to the efforts to develop a sharper analysis that can inform various movements more clearly, then and now. 

Pt. IV will provide a few thoughts on moving forward.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

listen intently. think critically. act accordingly. 


reflections on autonomy, direct democracy & marronage w/ Modibo Kadalie Pt. III

“Every colonial nation carries the seeds of fascist temptation in its
Bosom … There is no doubt in the minds of those who have lived
through it that colonialism is one variety of fascism.” 
Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized

With the echoes of George Jackson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Cedric J. Robinson, Aimé Césaire, Angela Davis et al., Felicia Denaud & Josh Myers meditate on the moment in crisis. 

freedom summer | fascist winter w/ Felicia Denaud & Josh Myers

Today's program covered: The 60th Anniversary of the 1958 All-African People’s Conference  | Held: December 5-8, 2018 | Institute of Africa Studies | University of Ghana

The histories of Pan African activity are often incomplete, not because we do not know them.  But often because academically, African and Diasporic academicians do not engage with each other.  Interesting notion, when this class of folk claim to be experts in the very subject matter they do not practice.  Moving forward we must examine pan Africanism in more detail and intentionally.  I have argued in, Pan-Africanism in the United States: Identity and Belonging, “in relation to the Africana world, the forms of resistance that challenge the dominant narratives which are produced and reproduced from the sociohistorical and cultural processes which attempt(ed) to strip identity formations from African peoples provide a nuanced frame of reference to understand the relationship between identity, belonging, resistance, and power. The various perspectives that are produced have deep implications that are useful to understanding the evolution in the forms and practice of oppression over time and space.   To be clear, we must pay attention to the processes that produce a Pan African critical consciousness that challenges or impedes the development of an African collective consciousness, which then becomes the most press point of concern today.  The questions that form will attempt to peel away the relationship between ideas of identity formation and what does it mean to be African, presently and moving forward? Is the descriptor Africa or African meaningful to launch a program for liberation?  How can and do we truly begin to return to the source? We may find that the very idea and practice of Pan Africanism, while having a long and vital history in constructing a united front against centuries long attacks against the Africana world, must address what has Pan Africanism as an ideological guide to institutional formation actually produced. 

Today, AWNP’s executive producer, human rights activist, and international media journalist, Mwiza Munthali caught up with Dr. Gnaka Lagoke, an Assistant Professor of history (world, African, and African-American) and of Pan-Africana Studies at Lincoln University (PA) to talk about the 60th anniversary of the All African People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana.

Dr. Gnaka Lagoke is also a specialist and a political analyst in African and world politics, focusing on International and African development, comparative politics, international justice, Pan-Africanism and Ubuntu Philosophy.  He founded the Washington DC-based “The Revival of Pan-Africanism Forum” and the Thomas Sankara Annual Conference in 2007. As a political analysist, he has appeared on Voice America, Russia Today, HispanTV, Australian Broadcast Corporation, Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, CCTV, TVC News.  

Dr. Lagoke is also a member of the Organizing Committee of the 60th Anniversary of the All African People's Conference.  

Today’s program is produced in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock, Venezuela, the Avalon Village in Detroit; Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Cooperation Jackson in Jackson Mississippi; Palestine, South Africa, and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples!

Music Highlighted: Tall Black Guy--Water No Enemy 
Jaden Smith -Icon (Instrumental)
Little Brother-The Way To Do It (Instrumental)

Speech(es): At the beginning--Kwame Nkrumah opens the 1958 All African Peoples Conference; Speech at the end: Forces Against Africa
Image:http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-1DE

All African Peoples Conference Dec 1958-2018

Africa World Now Project is a multimedia educational project that produces knowledge about the African world through a series of methods that include: radio, podcast, publishing, film festivals, webinars, social media, etc.

Africa World Now Project is, in essence, a multimedia open-access 'classroom' that provides actionable information which explores continuities and discontinuities in the history, culture, and politics of the entire African world.

AWNP does this by engaging in organic discussions with scholars, artists, journalists, activists, organizers and others who are intentionally disruptive in assessing the various issues that exist in the entire African world.

All African Peoples Conference Dec 1958-2018

Africa World Now Project Collective

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