CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 4

The Name, “Trinidad”

     Columbus renamed our island with a term which reflected Europe’s religious fundamentalism. The three peaks of the Southern Range were the first thing that the European mariners sighted. It reminded them of the central mystery of Christianity, the three persons in one God, the Trinity. In Spanish the term Trinity is expressed as La Trinidad, precisely the name of our island.

     The religious fundamentalism of Christendom prevented, and indeed still prevents, the vast majority of Christians from realizing that it was in the Nile Valley where human beings first formulated the idea of a Supreme Being who is One but Three at the same time. The doctrine of the Trinity which Africans from the Nile Valley elaborated thousands of years before Christianity is to be found in a hymn to Amen contained in a papyrus now housed in the Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (Allen 182). The following is a contemporary English of the version of the hymn reproduced in Egyptian hieroglyphs in Allen’s text (183):

          There are three gods:

          Amen, Ra, and Ptah. There is no god like unto them.

          He is Amen in so far as He is distinct from the universe.

He is Ra in so far as He is visible in and rules over the universe.

He is Ptah in so far as He created everything that exists. (My translation)    

    

     We are, then, especially blessed to live in an island named after the Trinity, a truth about the nature of the Supreme Being first revealed to Africans thousands of years ago. The Spanish conquerors intended to use the name of the Supreme Being as a mechanism for stealing other people’s property. Now that we know the truth, we can be set free from the limitations of Eurocentric religious fanaticism.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” PART 3—WHO (continued)

     As it turns out, many people believe that the major contribution to the festival was made by Europeans of French extract. But this theory does not make much sense. French-speaking Europeans and Africans only began coming to Trinidad and Tobago after 1783, the year of the famous treaty known as the Cédula de Población [The Population Accord]. According to this accord, Spanish-speaking Europeans, who controlled our island at the time, facilitated large-scale immigration from the Caribbean islands controlled by the French.

     On 31 July 1498, Columbus, on his third voyage, arrived at the island known as Iere [VERIFY]. Columbus was the lead man of a wave of ruthless conquerors who had been authorized by the Treaty of Tordesillas to take possession of everything and everyone they found in the “New World.” In order to lay claim to the land of the native peoples, the Caribs, the conquerors had to rename the island. Now, the conquerors were agents of Christendom, the political arm of Christianity. And it must be recalled that, at the time of the contact between Europe and the Western Hemisphere, Christendom and Islam were ferociously contending for control of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” PART 2

Who

     As we have seen in the last chapter, human beings can be divided into only three “races”: Africans, Asiatics, and Europeans. More than any other “race,” Africans have been associated with Carnival. Indeed, Carnival is the ultimate pan-African festival.

     The continent of Africa is the original homeland of Africans. However, it is also the original homeland of all human beings, and it is the cradle of all human civilization. Even though civilization was invented in Africa, it clearly belongs to all human beings. The same can be said of Carnival to some extent. However, as we look around the world today, wherever we find a good Carnival, we will find that Africans have left their influence in a very special way.

     If there had not been any Africans in Trinidad and Tobago, there would not have been a Carnival as we know it. What about those people from Trinidad and Tobago who are not Africans; have they contributed anything to “we thing”? Well, most assuredly they have. Europeans of French extract and East Indians have added to the festival and helped to make it what it is today.

TO BE CONTINUED

Carnival Is “We Thing”

      

PART 1—THE INTRODUCTION

                                       It would be hard to find a Trinbagonian who does not think of Carnival as our (we) thing. We all believe that the festival known as Carnival is special to Trinidad and Tobago and that our version of the festival is the best in the world. In a chapter, “Carnival Is “We Thing” of a forthcoming book we examined this proposition to see if there is any truth to it.

     The best way to proceed would be to try to get a more complete understanding of Carnival by asking fundamental questions about it: who? what and how? when? where? and why? After we have looked into Carnival following the lead of these key questions, we will be in a better position to see if we Trinbagonians are right in laying claim to having the best Carnival in the world.

I HAVE DIVIDED THE CHAPTER INTO 22 PARTS WHICH WILL BE POSTED SERIALLY

THE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CARNIVAL, HOWARD UNIVERSITY AND ITS CURRENT PRESIDENT

Eighteen years ago, the Howard University administration took the position that it would be improper for me to travel to Trinidad at Carnival time because: 1) Trinidad is the land of my birth; 2) My trips to Trinidad at Carnival time stir up the envy of my colleagues who view them as an annual winter vacation; 3) Trinidad is English speaking and I am a professor of Spanish. I intend to travel to Trinidad for Carnival 2016. However, this should not pose any problem, since, as of July 2015, the Howard University administration has placed me on leave with pay.

While in Trinidad for the 2015 Carnival, I saw a report on a local TV station about a visit to the country by President Wayne A. I. Frederick and his family. I subsequently discovered that President Frederick frequently “comes back home” for the Carnival. It has been brought to my attention that some Howard University faculty members have expressed their discontent at the appointment of a “foreign Black” as president of the University.

It will surely not be long before the position taken by the University administration 18 years ago resurfaces as a criticism of President Frederick. Since I have earned the respect of the national and international academic community for my work on Carnival, I wish to offer a series of scholarly reflections on the major significance of Carnival, “The Ultimate Pan-African Festival.”

ALL OF MY POSTS FROM NOW UNTIL ASH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016 WILL FOCUS ON THIS ISSUE

THE DONALD’S LATEST OUTRAGE

Everyone is horrified by the Donald’s latest outrage, and rightly so. However, please let’s not get into any pie-in-the- sky talk about how the Donald violates the very spirit and values on which this country was founded. Let’s not forget that the Declaration of Independence describes the First Nations people as “the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Let’s not forget that the U.S. Constitution declares that Black people are three-fifths human.

Donald’s call for blocking all Muslims from entering the nation is, indeed, unspeakably unprincipled. The Donald is horribly out of touch with the values that we have come to identify as American, but he is not that much out of touch with those who deemed Blacks to be three-fifths human. 

SEE www.ianismart.com

ARE TRUMP’S LIES REALLY THAT BIG OF A DEAL?

What about this big fat lie? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

You all remember that one? And what about this other one from the same document, referring to the First Nations people as: “the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

Who was doing the “undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions” at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890?

THE MECCA V HOWARD AS INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

I was born in 1944 in Belmont, Port-of-Spain. Wayne A. I. Frederick, the current president (#17) of Howard University was born at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital in 1971 but spent the first few months of his life at a home in Belmont. It was in 1971 that I first “came to America” to begin doctoral studies at UCLA. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated author of Between the World and Me and recipient of a MacArthur genius award for 2015, was born in Baltimore in 1975, the very year I earned the Ph.D. in Spanish. In 1977, I joined the Howard University faculty as assistant professor of Spanish.

Coates makes an important clarification: “I was admitted to Howard University, but formed and shaped by The Mecca. These institutions are related but not the same. Howard University is an institution of higher education, concerned with the LSAT, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. The Mecca is a machine, crafted to capture and concentrate the dark energy of all African peoples and inject it directly into the student body . . . The history, the location, the alumni combined to create the Mecca—the crossroads of the black diaspora” (40).

There was a period in the 1990s when Wayne Frederick, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ian Isidore Smart were fellow members of the Howard University community. Coates asserts that Howard limited his potential because: “It was still a school, after all. I wanted to pursue things, to know things, but I could not match the means of knowing that came naturally to me with the expectations of professors.” Howard University, the institution of higher learning, failed young Ta-Nehisi. He could not be more clear: “The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books. I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests.” Whereas Coates withdrew from Howard University without completing any degree, President Frederick completed the B.S. / M.D., his specialization in surgery, and the MBA at the institution of higher learning.

            In my nearly four decades as a faculty member, I have had as my major goal the bridging of the gap between the library and the classroom, between the Mecca and the institution of higher education. It was with this goal in mind that I founded the Afro-Hispanic Institute Press, the Afro-Hispanic Review and Original World Press. For this would, beyond doubt, facilitate the adoption of textbooks which enable students to experience “the vastness of black people across space-time,” thereby almost ensuring that every class would be an adventure.

            The University has entered a critical phase of its existence; and its board of trustees has taken the bold step of placing the reins of the presidency for the first time in the hands of a “foreign Black.” Indeed, not only is the 17^th president a “foreign Black,” but so too are his provost and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. As the president moves to chart a course through these troubled waters, he will surely seek to ensure that The Mecca and Howard University, the institution of higher learning, become one and the same, an indivisible union. 

Can this man adequately represent the interests of African Americans?

“Will Howard University’s TV Station Be Auctioned Off to the FCC?” This is the title of an article by Todd Steven Burroughs. (posted: Oct. 19 2015 9:54 AM www.theroots.com). The article opens with the following paragraph: “Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick is considering auctioning WHUT—the university’s public television station, and for 35 years the only black-owned public television station in the United States—to the Federal Communications Commission for anywhere between an estimated $100 million and $500 million, according to a universitywide memorandum released Friday.”

               The station is, in fact, a major part of the African American heritage. Its value ranges from 100 million to half a billion. Is President Frederick adequately prepared to enter into hardball negotiations of this caliber? This is no joke! We’re talking about 400 million dollar range! Can this man adequately represent the interests of African Americans?

IS HOWARD UNIVERSITY ANTI-BLACK?

The Afro-Hispanic Institute, the Afro-Hispanic Review, and Original World Press represent significant strides to “do for self,” “to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery,” and to achieve financial well-being. White supremacy cannot exist in the face of Black self-confidence, Black financial independence, Black self-emancipation from mental slavery. It defies common sense that the Howard University administration would be so set on nullifying the positive effect and influence of the Afro-Hispanic Institute, the Afro-Hispanic Review and Original World Press. 

AFROCENTRICITY AND “THE DONORS”

It seems pretty clear that the new Howard University leadership has set itself on a path of “toning down” the Black thing—that is, Afrocentricity—so as to be more mainstream and thus more appealing to the “donors.” Who then, in the opinion of this new leadership, are these “donors”? Should not the alumni be the principal “donors”? And, if Howard University is still the “Capstone,” the premiere of the nation’s 105 HBCUs (historically BLACK colleges / universities), why would the embracing of Afrocentricity be offensive—that is, non-appealing—to them?

THE OLD GUARD’S IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY

A stalwart member of Howard University’s “Old Guard” once declared that even a full professor is not supposed to be engaged in research “on Howard’s time.” According to this idea of the university, the faculty are here to teach, teach, teach disadvantaged African American students. Are not the three pillars of the academic’s profession research, teaching, and service? Isn’t instruction at the tertiary level inextricably tied to research and service?

That same stalwart Old Guard HBCU administrator also was once heard to proclaimed, “Harvard leads [not Howard]”!—Whatever about the “Leadership for America and the Global Community” slogan—

It appears that the Old Guard has cunningly confirmed its authority by selecting for the University’s top “leadership” positions individuals who are not sufficiently familiar with all of the subtle dynamics of the institution’s history, a history inextricably entwined with the specific African American Black experience. Thus the University has officially taken the position that faculty, even full professors, are duty bound to devote almost 100 percent of their efforts to teaching disadvantaged African American students; research is not to be undertaken “on Howard’s time.”

AFRICAN AMERICANS vs FOREIGN BLACKS AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY

Up until very recently, it was an unwritten but steadfastly adhered to rule that a so-called “foreign Black” could not serve as president of the Capstone. Now, all of a sudden, we have not only a president, but the provost and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences who are “foreign Blacks.” Do these individuals have a real empathy with the African American “Black experience”? Or does that really matter?

There are preliminary indications that two of these individuals have manifested a certain lack of empathy with the African American “Black experience.” This is particularly problematic, since there is a theory that the three “foreign Blacks” were plunked into “leadership” because they could more easily be manipulated than African Americans.

KNOWLEDGE, POWER, EMANCIPATION, MAKING SENSE OF SANDRA BLAND’S DEATH

Knowledge is power. Black people are effectively powerless. Therefore Black people need knowledge as much as we need oxygen. THE GUNNING DOWN OF MICHAEL BROWN: AN AFROCENTRIC RESPONSE provides precisely the kind of knowledge that we Black people need, the knowledge that empowers us to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. The knowledge that helps us to make sense of the death of Sandra Bland . . . . My God, my God! When are we going to wake up and smell the coffee? 

www.ianismart.com

PRESIDENT FREDERICK’S IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY

Howard University’s newly installed President Frederick appears to be bent of deemphasizing the “Black” of the HBCU (historically Black college / university) character of the institution. President Frederick would be well advised to proceed with extreme caution, since his selection as president of Howard University smashed an unwritten, unspoken but viscerally adhered to policy of excluding so-called “foreign Blacks” from serving as president of the institution.

Furthermore, President Frederick received all of his degrees (the BSc the M.D., the M.B.A.) as well as his specialized medical training from Howard University. The HBCU model of Academe is the one that he knows best. Since he apparently thinks that this model needs to be reworked, he must have in mind some ideal model on which to fashion the new Howard. Should he not make clear to all the stake holders—the faculty, students, staff, and alumni—what this ideal model looks like? 

HOWARD AS THE “BLACK OXFORD”

In that July 4 interview with Von Martin on Caribbeana (WPFW 89.3 FM), President Frederick spoke of the significant impact the great Dr. Eric Eustace Williams had on his formation. Dr. Williams, the “founding father” (there goes that phrase again) of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago served for a few years on the faculty of Howard University—Indeed, his portrait hangs among the greats in the halls of the History Department. President Frederick was proud to point out that Dr. Williams deemed Howard to be the “Black Oxford.”

Are we not well past that stage? Is it not a given that he who aims at being second rate ends up being fourth rate?

PAN-AFRICAN “ASSIMILATION”

In that July 4 interview with Von Martin on Caribbeana (WPFW 89.3 FM), the question was raised as to how much of her/his Caribbean identity the Caribbean immigrant to the United States should retain. President Frederick thought that, whereas it was important to keep the special Caribbean identity, those immigrants who achieved the greatest success were those who were prepared to “assimilate” more fully. The term “assimilate” leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, harking back to the old days when natives under a white supremacist colonial regime saw assimilation to whites as the best way out of their situation. Here at the premiere HBCU (historically Black college / university), we are called to provide “leadership for America and the global community” in emancipating ourselves from mental slavery. Under the “Big Tent” of Pan-Africanism, Caribbean identity, African American identity, Afro-Latino identity, Yoruba identity, Kikuyu identity, etc. etc. fit together in marvelous harmony. There is no need to introduce the outmoded concept of “assimilation.” 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CARNIVAL

In that July 4 interview with Von Martin on Caribbeana (WPFW 89.3F FM), President Frederick lamented the loss of the once flourishing Washington DC Caribbean Carnival, especially because of the significant contribution the festival made to the humanities. Out of modesty, I suppose, Von did not reference his own essay, “Going Back Home to Take Home Back,” published in the watershed work on the festival edited by Ian Isidore Smart and Kimani S. K. Nehusi, Ah Come Back Home: Perspectives on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival (Washington DC: Original World Press, 2000). In his essay Von insightfully affirmed: “In order to be equipped to give full expression to the Carnival tradition, many Trinbagonians go back home to bring home back to the Carnival in their respective cities [throughout North America and Europe]” (page 194). President Frederick is one of those thousands of Trinbagonians who make the trek home every year for the Carnival.

SOCIAL JUSTICE OR AFROCENTRICITY

On July 4, the newly selected Howard University president, Dr. Wayne Frederick, was interview by Von Martin on his weekly program, Caribbeana (WPFW 89.3FM). Dr. Frederick repeatedly declared that social justice was part of the DNA of Howard University. Now, according to social contract theory, social justice would be inherent in the DNA of any social organization. Certainly, according to all the Fourth-of-July gush, social justice is inherent the DNA of this “land of the free, home of the brave.”

President Frederick referenced the “Founding Fathers [sic]” (a very revealing Freudian slip) of the University, Oliver Otis Howard. Oliver Otis Howard was, indeed, a Union general from New England; however, the achievement of which he was most proud was his complicity in the unspeakably high crime of genocide perpetrated against the First Nations peoples.

Since Howard University is the premiere HBCU (historically BLACK college / university), would it not have been more meaningful to signal Afrocentricity as the most significant element of its DNA? Since, Dr. Frederick is the first non-African American (that is to say, “foreign Black) president, would it not have been more meaningful to signal Pan-Africanism as the most significant element of the University’s DNA?

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND WHITE SUPREMACIST TERRORISM

The white supremacist terrorist who massacred the nine Black people in the historic Charleston church sounded exactly like Thomas Jefferson in his wild rant about rape. In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson speculates on the possibility of emancipating the enslaved Africans. He argues, however, that Blacks would have to be moved away from white society. One of the most pressing reasons Jefferson gives for this separation is expressed as follows: “their own judgment in favour of the whites, declared by their preference of them, as uniformly as is the preference of the Oran-ootan for the black women over those of his own species” (p. 138).

To put it in plain English, Jefferson is saying that just as the Orangutans in Africa have an irresistible urge to mate with Black women, so too Black men in America have an irresistible urge to mate with white women. It is a law of nature: the inferior being is irresistibly attracted to mate with the superior being.

Happy Juneteenth

TODAY IS THE 150^TH ANNIVERSARY OF JUNETEENTH. LET US CELEBRATE IT, REMEMBERING THAT SINCE “A SETBACK IS A SETUP FOR A COMEBACK,” WE ARE CALLED TO MAKE SENSE OF THE CHARLESTON MASSACRE, YET ANOTHER OF THE SPATE OF HENIOUS HATE CRIMES COMMITTED BY WHITE SUPREMACY

“THESE THINGS TAKE TIME”

“THESE THINGS TAKE TIME”

Centuries before the “Founding Fathers” rose up in revolt against the legitimate authority of their King, Africans in North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean were rising up in righteous indignation against the unspeakably heinous criminality of the various European nations engaged in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

In 1776, there were undoubtedly many prudent, reasonable colonists who opposed violent revolution against legitimate authority, arguing that after all: “these things take time.” Nowadays, there are many “prudent, reasonable” people—Blacks and nonBlacks alike—who preach patience in the face the barbaric white supremacist oppression. They argue: “After all, these things take time.”

Well, it’s been just about five centuries now that Africans have been rising up in righteous indignation against the unspeakably heinous criminality of the various European nations engaged in white supremacist exploitation. Isn’t that enough f**king time?

CHATTEL SLAVERY AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

CHATTEL SLAVERY AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

George Washington and his “lawless rebels” railed against the King for his unconscionable villainy in trying to take away their freedom to maintain the ungodly system of chattel slavery. The King, having made incredible wealth through the ungodly system of chattel slavery, found that it was no longer profitable. You see, the enslaved Africans simply refused to accept their lot. They, like George Washington and his bunch, preferred death to slavery.

It is monstrously ironic that the Founding Fathers’ major concern was the King’s intention to abolish the ungodly system of chattel slavery and thereby deprive the white supremacist colonists of their chief source of wealth.

The sad reality is that for the Founding Fathers the principal right was the right to maintain the ungodly system of chattel slavery.

WHAT A MESS!

Howard University faculty (as distinct from administration) may not engage in any for-profit academic activity. However, Howard University faculty (as distinct from administration) are among the lowest paid in the nation. The Howard University administration has run the University into the ground; the institution is basically broke. So the Howard University administration goes, hat in hand, to the National Science Foundation, which doles us out some funds on condition that we dance to their tune. That tune is that we turn our focus away from white supremacy—never mind that we are supposedly the leading one of the nation’s 105 HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES (HBCUs). And the National Science Foundation engages a for-profit white corporation to help us forsake our misguided preoccupation with white supremacy.