Blossom of Thought

Dexter Morton, founder of Chakra Wonders (Arizona, US) joins me for a chat in this episode. Chakra Wonders is a holistic healing resort organization - philosophers of the mind, body and spirit, who offer light energynto assist people while on their journey. In this episode we talk about Chakras,

Find Chakra Wonders at:

Website: https://chakrawonders.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chakrawonders/

On this episode, from Charleston South Carolina, US, I have brother Khet Waas Hutip - a health and body healing expert, entrepreneur, educator and founder of Sacred Rootz shop. Khet is protégée of the famed Dr. Laila Africa one of the world's foremost authorities on health and nutrition. Khet appeals to the return to traditional African healing modality - herbs, and that Africans should eat for their culture to avoid disease.

In this episode we critically analyze "The Woman King" movie with my guests Lena Crawford (Texas US) and Geechee Yaw (Costa Rica). My guests talk about the context of the making of the movie, its historical context, and inaccurate depiction of African history. The scriptwriters are European. This is one of those situations where African history has to be told through the lens of Europeans instead of having Africans tell their own story. The movie paints an inaccurate picture of slavery in West Africa between the Oyo kingdom, Dahomey kingdom, and the Portuguese slave traders. The fact of aggression and violence of European slave traders is almost non-existent in the film. The film doesn’t show Africa’s prolonged resistance and fight against slave trade in that part of the continent. Neither does the film show the real prolonged problem of Africans – namely: capitalism and/or colonialism. Lena and Geechee also critically question the opening sexual assault scene and how it is intended to paint Africa at the time as struggling with rape (sexual assault).

The controllers of Hollywood/capitalist always ride on the wave of the consciousness of black people and manipulate it for their own financial gain and divert the energies of the people to Hollywood and Hollywood posing as the source of African history.

My guest in this episode is Ahjamu Umi (from Sacramento, USA) and we speak about the radical side of Marthin L. King. Ahjamu is a dedicated activist/organizer/author who has engaged in on the groundwork throughout Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and throughout the U.S. for about 4 decades now. His latest work is "A Guide for Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence." This work is a step-by-step methodology on how to build strong empowered communities while linking them to the international struggle for justice and forward human progress. His other works are “The Paradox Principles”, The Courage Equation, Mass Incarceration in California; Its about Profits, Not Justice. Last but not least, Ahjamu is an organizer with the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, a Pan-Africa political party based in Africa with Chapters all over the world.

Ahjamu has studied Martin King and organized for many years with Kwame Ture who worked side-by-side with Dr King. The masses of the people make history, Dr King did make history. Martin King’s was a principled, honest man that loved his people to death and paid the prize for them. According to Ahjamu and Kwame Ture, King’s “Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” speech is his best speech ever while “I Have a Dream” is a mediocre speech. Ahjamu differentiates mobilizing from organizing. He says King erred by confusing non-violence as a principle instead of a tactic. Ahjamu quotes Kwame Ture: “In order for non-violence to work you must have a conscience and the American government doesn’t have a conscience.” King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 while serving his people (workers union).

Find Ahjamu Umi and his work at: https://www.abetterworld.me/

Sandile Bhembe, a Swazi historian, business analyst, and political activist returns to the show to talk about the origins of the Police Force in Swaziland. Police in Swaziland, like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, have increasingly become very violent and brutal to civilians agitating for democratic changes. Sandile tells us that the Police Force was established to protect  European white settler capital interests. A hardly told story of Sobhuza II's mistrust of Police because of their loyalty to British settlers is told here. Astonishingly, the king was once arrested by the police as white settlers had no regard for the king.

This episode is on King Mswati III - the King of Swaziland - as a businessman and the effect that has on the rule of law, the economy, the political landscape and the business community. To talk about this subject, I'm joined by a very decorated leader - Mandla Hlatjwayo. Mandla Hlatshwayo is an activist and founding member of the Peoples United Democratic Movement [Pudemo]. He is also the Chairman of Letfu-Sonk­he Institute for Strategic Thinking and Development living in exile in South Africa. Letfu Sonkhe Institute provides an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, educators and politicians to meaningfully engage and discuss the on-going challenges of Swaziland.

Friends/comrades Saneliswa Magagula, Temazulu Zulu, and Sylvester Mhlangameet up with me for a book review on the history of Swaziland. The book under review is “The Kingdom of Swaziland: Studies in Political History (Contributions in Comparative Colonial Studies) authored by D. Hugh Gillis. The book entails Swaziland’s history from the 18th century to 1921 – before Sobhuza II ascends to power. Its focus is the Swazis’ contact and struggle with European colonizers, namely: the British and Boers. The book gives context to the current state of affairs in Swaziland relative to the power wielders – the monarch, culture, tradition and social milieu.

Highlights

· There is a deliberate ongoing effort to erase parts of Swazi culture that disparage the Dlamini royals, an attempt to protect their (Dlamini) dynasty and cement their standing as the custodians of Swazi culture who dictate what traditions persist.

·  A study of this history will help Swazis understand how the monarchs’ erasure of culture and downplaying the role of non-Dlamini chiefdoms contributed to the present-day political landscape.

· The author traces the roots of Swaziland’s tinkhundlasystem of governance to the early 19th century, where a militant king Mswati II established royal villages that were entrusted to a brother, a wife, or loyal chief as a way to consolidate power.

The identity of the Swazi people historically was deep-rooted in rituals and mythology, which contributed to the prestige of Kings and authoritarian rule not being sufficiently challenged in the past.

An esteemed human rights lawyer from Swaziland, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi speaks to me on terrorism legislations, Swaziland’s Suppression of Terrorism Act, 2008 ("the Act"), and judicial crisis. Mr Nhlabatsi is known for his fortitude and taking critical human rights cases in Swaziland - even against the machinary of government.

In this episode we talk about: most terrorism legislations have been promulgated as weapons of governments to clamp down on political opponents. Swaziland Suppression of Terrorism Act is no different. The government passed it on a certificate of urgency devoid of following legislative promulgation processes. The Act violates fundamental human rights and the government has been using it to proscribe political movements as terrorist and to silence dissent. A full bench of the High Court of Swaziland, in 2016 declared some of the provisions of the Act unconstitutional. Six years later (2022) the government resuscitates its appeal at the Supreme Court and gets an unprecedented condonation for its laxity in failing to execute the appeal. Ostensibly, government's renewal of its interest to execute the appeal has been incentivized by the current political unrest.  Mr. Nhlabatsi laments that the judiciary in Swaziland is in shambles. 

FInd Sibusiso Nhlabatsi on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sibusiso.nhlabatsi

In this episode, we sit down with Erica Caines to discuss Anti-Consumerism. Erica is a poet, writer, and organizer in Baltimore, D.C, Maryland, and Virginia. She is an organizing committee member of the anti-war coalition, the Black Alliance For Peace as well as an outreach member of the Black-centered Ujima People’s Progress Party. Caines founded Liberation Through Reading in 2017 as a way to provide Black children with books that represent them and created the extension, a book club entitled Liberation Through Reading BC, to strengthen political education online and in our communities.

Erica defines consumerism as the "buy, buy, buy" mentality where we are constantly bombarded with advertisements inducing us to buy goods we don't need with money we don't have. She goes on to speak about the subtleties of marketing or Influencer-based marketing. Erica unpacks the relationship between the promotion of luxury and consumerism and influencer networks across social and mainstream media. She faults the capitalist system for making happiness e synonymous with consumerism. Finally, Erica shares the strategies for shedding consumerism.

In this episode, I connect with Maxine Davis in England and we are discussing England's Underdevelopment of Africa over the past 500 years and Queen Elizabeth II's legacy and brutality against Africa and Africans. Sister Maxine is a committed Pan-Africanist born in England, of Jamaican parentage. She describes herself as an African born away from home. She's been a member and organizer for 30 years for the ALL African Peoples Revolutionary Party, founded by the father of Pan-Africanism, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. She is a community activist seeking to build racial justice for people of African descent in England. She has a MA in African history.

"The rebirth of civilization in Europe began in the 15th century. At this time Africa and Asiatic Civilizations far outstripped Europe." - W.E.B. De Bois