THE TRUMP WAY TO “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”

The U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 2 declares that Africans are only three-fifths human and consequently are, as the Supreme Court reaffirmed with its Dred Scott decision, the LEGITIMATE property of white people. The same Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution declared the First Nations people to be nonpersons, reaffirming the viciously dehumanizing language used in the Declaration of Independence: “merciless Indian Savages.”

The nation founded in 1776 made itself great through the enslavement of Africans (three-fifths humans) and the unconscionable theft of the homeland territories of the “merciless Indian Savages.”

Donald Trump clearly understands that the greatness is fading. Many of Trump’s supporters believe that the final nail in the coffin of America’s greatness was the election in 2008 of a three-fifths human being to the highest office in the land. Many of Trump’s supporters are bent on retaking from America the vast territories that not too long ago belonged to the “merciless Indian Savages.”

Is this the kind of greatness we want for America?

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 10

     In Eurocentric theology and philosophy, good and evil are two primordial, totally different realities. African and Asiatic philosophical and theological systems are much more mature. The focus is placed on the harmonious blend of all reality. When we say, “It’s all good,” we are really recognizing the deep wisdom of the African and Asiatic systems. We must remember that in the Christian Bible when God created the universe, He declared it to be all good.

     Carnival is based on the original African philosophical and theological tradition. This accounts for some of the confusion we find in the stories of our Carnival figures. In the strictly Eurocentric version of Christianity, the devil is totally evil. But the devil, Satan, is named after Set. The original Set was the brother of Wosir. And Set is the one who killed Wosir. But Wosir’s death brought life to all mankind, since his blood watered the earth and made all things grow and sprout. Indeed, Wosir’s death was not forever, since Wosir was resurrected and went on to rule as king of the afterlife.

     Wosir had a son with Auset (whom the Greeks mistakenly called Isis). This son was conceived after Wosir was dead. The son’s name was Heru (the Greeks mistakenly called him Horus). Now, there exists an undying enmity between Heru and Set, for Heru is unrelenting in his thrust to avenge his father’s death. However, there is no real enmity between Wosir and Set, nor even between Auset and Set.

     Although Set killed his brother, Wosir, he is not a completely evil force. In fact, he is a powerful orisha (as are Heru, Wosir, Auset, etc.). The Greeks, who came onto the scene many, many millennia after the ancient Africans had developed their philosophical and theological system, could not deal with so complex a system. The Greeks simplified everything and so distorted the Mystery. Although Christianity is deeply rooted in ancient African theological tradition, Christendom, the socio-economic system which is supposed to have Christianity as its base, is Eurocentric and more heavily influenced by  the Greek approach.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 9

Stick Fights and Ritual Confrontations

     Central to the festival for Wosir, was a symbolic battle between the two opposing forces. This battle took the form of a ritual warrior dance using cudgels. It was the original stick fight. The Greek historian, Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century B.C.E., reports that he was told that sometimes the play acting got so real that people would end up with a bus’ head.

     What goes on in the gayelle of our Trinidad and Tobago tradition is really a ritual dance, a theatrical performance reenacting the original cosmic confrontation, the creative confrontation, the cosmic clash between the Ying and the Yang. It is out of this basic clash that creation takes place. The ancient Africans taught all mankind the fundamental law of the universe. The stick fight is a reenactment of this basic law. The bull fight is another form of this reenactment.

     All of the Carnivals in the Americas have a confrontation at their center. In the Carnival of Barranquilla, Colombia, the confrontation between the various groups takes the form of a make-belief battle. In our Carnival, there are many kinds of ritual confrontations which take the form of a dance. The dragon dance is one of these and represents the clash of good versus evil. The many devil characters, the jab-jabs [diable-diable], play out other representations of the clash between good and evil.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 8

The Original Passion Plays

     The ancient Egyptians were the first people in recorded history to develop theatrical presentations. The Greeks are perhaps the best known followers of the Egyptians in the matter of the theatre. However, there is a mystery play, a Passion Play, which was a central part of the festival tradition in Babylon, Mesopotamia. It should be pointed out that this Mesopotamian theatrical tradition comes after Egypt, but before Greece.  And there is on record in the British Museum the script of a Babylonian Passion Play.

     Ancient Babylon is located precisely in present-day Iraq. The Babylonian Passion Play tells of “the savior-god Bel of Babylonia.” The script of the play, written on a cuneiform tablet which is at least four thousand years old, can be seen in the British Museum, So it is for real. The Play is divided into ten scenes: I. Bel is taken prisoner; II. Bel is tried in the Hall of Justice; III. Bel is smitten; IV. Bel is led away to the mount; V. with Bel are taken two malefactors, one of whom is released; VI. after Bel has gone to the mount the city breaks out into tumult; VII. Bel’s clothes are carried away; VIII. Bel goes down into the mount and disappears from life; IX. a weeping woman seeks him at the gate of burial; X. Bel is brought back to life. (Man, God, and Civilization, 125-26).

     The white American film maker, Mel Gibson, was really following a tradition which was invented in Africa when, in 2004, he gave to the world a Passion Play in the form of a movie of the same name.

     The written records from Babylonian civilization which still exist only go back some four thousand years. In order to maintain its dominance of the world, Europe would like to have most, if not all, of the monuments from Babylon lodged in museums in Europe and the United States. It is for this reason that when the United States and British military invaded Iraq on 19 March 2003, they allowed the museums of Iraq to be looted. There is clear evidence that the vast majority of the pieces contained in these Iraqi museums were not destroyed as the Western press reported. Instead, the pieces, the patrimony of the Iraqi people, were for the most part spirited away to Israel, the United States and Britain.

     The Babylonian Passion Play represented a continuation of the tradition established in Kemet at the very beginning of civilization. The centerpiece of the festival in honor of Wosir was a mystery play, that is to say, a Passion Play, which was performed principally in the holy cities up in the south of Egypt. Our ancestors in ancient Egypt looked to the south, to the very heart of Africa, as their original homeland.

     In the Passion Play of the Kemetic festival for Wosir, the Pharaoh, the priests and officials, as well as the common folk, participated. The play involved the movement of all the participants in procession through a public space. The play reenacted Wosir’s suffering and death at the hands of his brother Set. And it proclaimed Wosir’s resurrection, his ultimate triumph over death. The Pharaoh played the part of Wosir, his soldiers played the part of Wosir’s entourage. The common people played the part of Set’s entourage.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 7

What and How

     The what and the how of Carnival are best studied in conjunction with each other. Carnival is a festival. Some say it is the greatest festival on earth. Some say it is the ultimate pan-African festival. Once we know how the festival is celebrated, we will fully understand what kind of thing it is.

Festivals and Society

     Every human society has festivals. Scholars tell us that, as far as our knowledge goes,  Africans from the Nile Valley were the first human beings to keep a written record of their history. These Africans have left us very clear and detailed written records of their festivals. The Pharaoh or king was responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the festivals. If he became remiss in this responsibility, he could be dethroned, for without festivals the society was considered to be without life.

     Although there were many festivals in ancient Egypt, the one which scholars consider to be the most important was the festival to open the new year. In this celebration, the greatest of the ancestors or orisha, Wosir (whom the Greeks mistakenly called Osiris), was the center of focus. And the centerpiece of the ritual for Wosir was an activity in which his suffering, death, and ultimate  triumph over death were reenacted. So the retelling, the repeating through a theatrical activity, of the central events in the life of Wosir was the way in which (the how) the ancient Egyptians organized his festival.

      Wosir was more than a mere mortal, he was an orisha, a god, or more precisely, an aspect of the Creator, a cosmic force or energy. He was also considered to be an ancestor, since he is thought to have actually lived at some point of time in the past. In this respect, Wosir is exactly like Shango, one of the four great orisha of the Yoruba people. The events of Wosir’s life are called mysteries, and the religion of the ancient Egyptians is the Mystery System.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 6

No Carnivals without an African Presence

     If we look at the Carnivals in our contemporary world, we will find that the most developed ones occur in those nations in which Africans of many different ethnicities combined with French- or Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking Europeans to create a New World society. Thus there are Carnivals in Brazil, Colombia, Panama, even in Bolivia and Mexico. There is a Carnival in Louisiana, where French Creole is still spoken. There is a major Carnival in Haiti, where the population is 99.9% African, and the native language is French Creole.

     In those New World societies in which British or Dutch Europeans established firm control, there does not appear to be a Carnival tradition. We shall look into this matter at more length in the section “What and How.” At this point, we can conclude on the basis of the data that no Carnival had developed in the New World without the African input. On the other hand, even with significant African input, certain New World societies—Jamaica, Barbados, the South of the United States, for example—did not fully develop a Carnival tradition.

     On the basis of the evidence we have at this point, we can conclude that the African input is, then, a necessary condition for the development of a Carnival tradition. It is not, however, a sufficient condition.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 5

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Carnival and Society in Trinidad and Tobago

     Spanish-speaking Europeans controlled our island from 1498 until 1799[VERIFY `97], when the British conquered it. It suited the British not to interfere with the arrangements set up by the Cédula and so the flow from the French controlled islands continued unabated. Under the Spanish, Trinidad had been just a thinly populated way station in the journey to the South American Main. With the influx of huge numbers of French-speaking Africans and Europeans, social life developed in the island.

     One of the most important cultural features of the newly developed society was Carnival. There was no Carnival in Trinidad before the nineteenth century, because there was no real social life on the island. It just so happened that the development of a structured society coincided with the arrival of large numbers of Africans and Europeans from the French controlled islands.

     Let us take the case of Columbia, a South American nation located on the rimland of the Caribbean Sea. This nation was conquered by Spain during the same period in which Trinidad was overrun. Unlike Trinidad, Colombia was not a mere way station, rather it was a center of population. Consequently, Carnival became an important feature of the cultural life of the colony. If Trinidad had been a center of population and not a mere way station, Carnival would have been developed from the very beginning of the period of Conquest.

     Carnival developed in Trinidad when Africans and Europeans from French controlled islands took up permanent residence. Carnival developed in Colombia when Spanish conquerors took possession of the land and introduced vast numbers of enslaved Africans. There were Spaniards in Trinidad for three centuries, but there were no Africans. The Africans only came after the Cédula, and Carnival only developed after the Africans came. It makes no sense to conclude from this set of data that the development of Carnival was triggered by the arrival of French-speaking Europeans. It makes much more sense to conclude that without an African intervention there would not have been a Carnival in Trinidad.

TO BE CONTINUED