African Sexualities

by Sokari on May 30, 2011

African Sexualities’ is a groundbreaking new volume, forthcoming from Pambazuka Press. As well as using popular culture to help address the ‘what, why, how, when and where’ questions, the book’s contributors provide a critical mapping of African sexualities that informs readers about the plurality and complexities of sexualities on the continent – desires, practices, fantasies, identities, taboos, abuses, violations, stigmas, transgressions and sanctions. At the same time, the contributors pose gender-sensitive and politically aware questions that challenge the reader to interrogate assumptions and hegemonic sexuality discourses, thereby unmapping the intricate and complex terrain of African sexualities.

IF SEXUALITY WERE

A HUMAN BEING ...

Introduction to 'African Sexualities: A Reader'

Sylvia Tamale

2011-05-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73150

 

The following article by ‘African Sexualities’ editor Sylvia Tamale comprises the book’s introduction.

 

If Sexuality were a human being and she made a grand entrance (l’entrée grande) into the African Union conference centre, the honourable delegates would stand up and bow in honour. But the acknowledgement of and respect for Sexuality would no doubt be tinged with overtones of parody and irony, even sadness, because although Sexuality might represent notions of pleasure and the continuity of humanity itself, the term conjures up discussions about sources of oppression and violence. In fact, once Sexuality got to the podium and opened her mouth, the multiple complexities associated with her presence would echo around the conference room.

The Reader on African Sexualities (hereafter referred to as the Reader) intends to translate these echoes into comprehensible notions and concepts, carefully examining their different wavelengths and the terms of their power and laying bare the theoretical, political and historical aspects of African sexualities. The term ‘African sexualities’ immediately provokes the questions: who/what is African? What is sexuality? Who determines what qualifies as African sexualities? Among other things, the Reader attempts to address these deeply complex questions through the lenses of history, feminism, law, sociology, anthropology, spirituality, poetry, fiction, life stories, rhetoric, song, art and public health. In this way the Reader offers a rare opportunity to theorise sexuality through various modes. The idea is to deconstruct, debunk, expose, contextualise and problematise concepts associated with African sexualities in order to avoid essentialism, stereotyping and othering.

The material in this Reader has been carefully selected to surface the complexities associated with what has been pandered as African and the issues surrounding sexuality that have been taken for granted. One of the main challenges for contributors to the Reader was to refuse to perpetuate colonial reification of ‘African’ as a homogenous entity. Hence, the title’s reference to African sexualities is not because we are unaware of the richness and diversity of African peoples’ heritage and experiences. Jane Bennett’s essay in Chapter 6 addresses this issue at great length.

Any reference to the term ‘African’ in this volume is used advisedly to highlight those aspects of cultural ideology – the ethos of community, solidarity and ubuntu[1] – that are widely shared among the vast majority of people within the geographical entity baptised ‘Africa’ by the colonial map-makers. More importantly, the term is used politically to call attention to some of the commonalities and shared historical legacies inscribed in cultures and sexualities within the region by forces such as colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, globalisation and fundamentalism. Even as these commonalities are proposed, however, readers will find them challenged.

Although diverse forces interrupted the shape of sexualities on the continent – redefining notions of morality, for example, and ‘freezing’ them into social and political spaces through both penal codification and complex alliances with political and religious authority – differences among continental spaces meant that such interruptions had diverse effects. Such forces further attempted to standardise global ideas about African sexualities, often erasing questions of diversities and complexities of sexual relations. As the material in Part 1 reveals, however, colonial methods of researching, theorising and engaging in sexualities in Africa left indelible and significant imprints on people’s sexual lives.

This, however, is not to suggest that the continent became a hostage of its late colonial history. As the materials in this Reader clearly show, the continent is currently replete with vibrant movements, some seeking to reinforce sexual hegemonic powers and others challenging, subverting and resisting imposed modes of identity, morality and behaviour patterns. Some of the subversions have deep roots – Parts 2 and 3, titled ‘Sexuality, power and politics’ and ‘Mapping sexual representations and practices of identity’, respectively, offer expansions of these issues and excavate the political origins and social consequences of the politics of sexualities in Africa.

We speak of sexualities in the plural in recognition of the complex structures within which sexuality is constructed and in recognition of its pluralist articulations. The notion of a homogeneous, unchanging sexuality for all Africans is out of touch not only with the realities of lives, experiences, identities and relationships but also with current activism and scholarship. Ideas about and experiences of African sexualities are shaped and defined by issues such as colonialism, globalisation, patriarchy, gender, class, religion, age, law and culture. Because these phenomena are at play elsewhere in the world, and because of the various historical links that connect Africa to the rest of humankind, some theoretical and conceptual approaches that have informed sexualities studies elsewhere have relevance to the way writers think through questions of African sexualities.

Sexualities are often thought of as closely related to one of the most critical of biological processes, namely reproduction. But contemporary scholarship understands sexualities as socially constructed, in profound and troubling engagement with the biological, and therefore as heavily influenced by, and implicated within, social, cultural, political and economic forces. The study of sexualities therefore offers unending lessons about pleasure, creativity, subversion, violence, oppression and living. Attempts to define the term sexuality often end in frustration, and become in themselves exercises about writers’ own orientations, prioritisations and passions. As Oliver Phillips reminds us:

‘Sexuality can be defined by referring to a wide range of anatomical acts and physical behaviour involving one, two or more people. We can relate it to emotional expressions of love, intimacy and desire that can take an infinite variety of forms. Or it can be implicated in the reproduction of social structures and markers through rules and regulations that permit or prohibit specific relations and/or acts. In the end, it emerges that these definitions are far from exhaustive. None of them are adequate on their own but that when considered all together they reflect the multiple ways that sexuality is manifest and impacts on our lives, and that above all; these definitions all consistently involve relations of power.’ (Phillips 2011: 285)

It is this question of power to which the materials in this Reader return time and again.

As a continent, Africa has made significant progress in creating the space at policy level for discussion of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Since the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994, the African Union has adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol),[2] the Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (Maputo Plan of Action),[3] and the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).[4] These continent-wide efforts have boosted the possibility of creating national policies on a wide variety of issues including gender-based violence, access to reproductive healthcare and a focus on sexualities education, among others.

Although these policies are numerous, missing are the theoretical and practical sparks to ignite the commitment required from both state and non-state actors to implement them. Moreover, studies have revealed the direct link between the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services and sustainable development (UN Millenium Project 2006). Part 5 of this volume addresses the latter, with the opening essay by Beth Maina Ahlberg and Asli Kulane clearly framing the link between sexual and reproductive rights and issues of development.

The law turns sexualities into a space through which instruments of state control and dominance can be deployed. For example, the criminal legal system in most African states attempts to regulate how, when and with whom we can have consensual sex. The offences of prostitution, abortion and adultery clearly curtail both women’s and men’s sexual autonomy (although as the Reader material suggests, it is women’s autonomy that is most severely under threat), and the criminalisation of homosexuality affects both men and women who do not conform to the dominant ideology of heterosexuality. The material in Part 6, titled ‘Sex and masculinities’, demonstrates this very well.

Western scholars have thus far conducted the bulk of studies on sexualities and a big chunk of what has been published on the African continent emanates from South Africa.[5] This phenomenon has more to do with geopolitical power differentials than academic superiority. The dominance of Western theories and perspectives on sexuality studies and the fact that the main languages of academia are colonial have serious implications for rapidly growing sexualities scholarship on the continent. African feminists and other change agents are well aware of the dangers associated with the uncritical application of Western theories to non-Western contexts (Adomako Ampofo and Arnfred 2010). They constantly struggle to overcome the limitations and encumbrances that come with creating and disseminating cultural-specific knowledge in a foreign colonial language. They understand the capacity of language to confer power through naming and conveying meaning and nuance to sexuality concepts. Concepts such as silence, restraint, choice, gay, lesbian, coming out and drag queen, for example, all carry specific social meanings steeped in Western ideology and traditions.

It is worth reiterating the point made earlier: as researchers and theorists of sexualities we must always take great care not to fall into the homogenising trap. One of the salient points made by various authors in this volume is to avoid homogenising and essentialising people’s sexualities (whether Africans, Europeans, Asians, Middle Eastern or Hispanics).

Although many writers often hold romanticised notions of pre-colonial African sexualities as having been unrestricted and unbridled, the facts are quite different. As in all social organisations, African societies historically involved the organisation of gender, sexuality and reproduction – the diverse shapes, fluidities, the visible and invisible, the spiritual and the political and economic dynamics of those societies – which resulted in certain restraints.

For instance, almost all societies on the continent would have treated sexual interaction with a child or between parent and offspring as abominations. Part 8 is titled ‘Sexuality, spirituality and the supernatural’, and provides a glimpse of some of the complexities that pervade African sexualities in light of traditional beliefs and practices.

In the context of a resurgence of cultural, religious and economic fundamentalist movements, feminists and gender activists on the continent have forged global alliances in the struggle for women’s bodily integrity and sexual autonomy. After all, patterns of control seen in sexual and gender-based violence, marital rape, sex trafficking, teenage pregnancies, women’s sexual pleasure and so forth bear no national, religious or cultural stamp. But as feminists across the continents increase their global political activism for women’s reproductive health and sexual rights, so do they have to account more carefully for the differentials in culture and history.

So, although it is important to pay attention to the intersections among nations regarding gender inequality, it is crucial that the strategies employed by African feminists be informed by the lived experiences of women and men on the continent and the specificities of what they hold as their culture, taking into account that there is not always agreement among people in the same locale about the nuances and meanings of culture. Part 7, titled ‘Who’s having sex and who’s not?’, surfaces some of the most common stereotypes and prejudices about sexualities and the lived experiences of marginal groups in our societies.

Debates on sexual inequality represent the most fundamental challenge to struggles for global democracy. One of the biggest challenges of our times is how to confront the complexities of intersecting oppressions so that people identified as sexual minorities, for example sex workers, lesbians, gays, transgendered, intersexed, rape survivors and people living with HIV/AIDS, are able to stand with full status on the same podium such as those representing groups fighting dictatorships, corruption, social injustice, insecurity, discrimination against women, or people with disabilities. There are of course sexual minorities within each of these groups and often implicit among groups are concerns about sexualities. Until we close the gap between different voices demanding justice and equality, embracing the infinite possibilities of our sexual, social, economic and political beings, the African renaissance or the transformation that we are striving for will forever remain a mirage.

One important way of closing these gaps is by raising awareness through formal and informal education on sexualities. Part 9, titled ‘Pedagogical approaches’, demonstrates how this can be done in creative and effective ways.

HOW TO USE THIS READER

The key objective of this Reader is to amplify the voices of Africans on the topic of sexualities. This is achieved through a critical mapping and unmapping of African sexualities.

The process of mapping is meant to inform readers about the plurality and complexities of African sexualities, including desires, practices, presentations, fantasies, identities, taboos, abuses, violations, stigmas, transgressions and sanctions. At the same time, it poses questions that challenge the reader to interrogate assumptions and hegemonic sexuality discourses, thereby unmapping the intricate and complex terrain of African sexualities. How is sexuality linked to gender and subordination? What is the ‘Africanness’ in sexualities? How has history shaped African sexualities? What explicit and implicit diversities exist within sexuality? 

The Reader exposes the hidden or subtle lines that link the various aspects of our lives and sexualities. Such exposure facilitates our understanding of the negative and positive factors associated with the complex phenomenon of sexuality, including how it is instrumentalised, commodified and politicised, as well as its reproductive, pleasurable and empowering aspects.

Generally speaking, by the time we grow into adults many of us have done a great deal of learning, most of it rote (uncritical). Mechanical learning (cram, cram, cram, drill, drill, drill) is the norm for most of us as we move along the conveyor belt of examinations in post-colonial African education systems. The informal cultural systems of education that largely emphasise children’s unquestioning obedience to adults do not help either. Both formal and informal education in the main promote learning in dualisms and absolute truths, such as right and wrong, good and bad, moral and immoral, inclusion and exclusion and male and female. These do little to foster reflective and critical thinking.

The end result is that our learning processes grossly neglect to instruct us in the important concept of unlearning. Without this skill, it is extremely difficult for us to think critically and to question unjust frameworks or challenge the established order. Most of us passively absorb the assumptions and perspectives of the dominant view and many of us have a visceral negative reaction to the concept of sexuality. Unlearning literally requires us to discard our old eyes and acquire a new set with which to see the world. It requires us to jettison assumptions and prejudices that are so deep-seated and internalised that they have become normal and appear to be natural.

The critical process of transformative learning requires us to apply our intellect, unlearn deeply entrenched behaviour patterns and beliefs and relearn new ones. It requires us to acquire the vital skills to critically analyse internalised oppression and complicity with patriarchy and capitalism. It further requires us to step out of our familiar comfort zones and enter the world of discomfort and anxiety associated with change. Such processes, which call for a reorganisation of the old, are always fraught with difficulty, disequilibrium and stress.

This Reader on African Sexualities calls on us to do exactly that. It challenges us to confront issues that society has clothed in taboos, inhibitions and silences, to unclothe them, quiz them and give them voice. It certainly requires us to unlearn and relearn many things that we take for granted about sexualities and may well leave us confused, shocked, offended, embarrassed, scared and even a little excited. Many of us, for instance, will be baffled by the fact that issues of sexuality and desire, which are viewed as apolitical and private, are in fact steeped in politics and power relations. But such realisations are part of transformational learning and are reflections of our intellectual and political growth and our personal development.

To get maximum benefit from this Reader we need to pry our minds open to fresh ideas, absorb new knowledge and apply our intellect, knowledge and experience to develop a critical analysis of the issue at hand. Opening our minds means to accept differences, to see the world through the eyes of others, to open our ears to diverse viewpoints and to venture beyond our familiar horizons. To appreciate the Reader we have to tap deep into our inner resources of respect, empathy, tolerance, self-reflexivity and courage. We have to let our minds drift beyond the box, to see with our hands, hear with our skin and taste with our mind’s eye.

The Reader is divided into nine thematic parts, each containing essays that introduce the reader to the main concepts as well as key issues and debates in the area, thus providing a solid framework for analysis, review of knowledge and transformative action. There is an inevitable overlap of issues across the parts, which serves as a constant reminder of the intertwining nature of sexualities in every aspect of our lives and the web-like political effects. The structured divisions are forced for conceptual neatness and reading convenience more than anything else. In addition to the essays, the Reader unconventionally carries a wide variety of genres including poetry, fiction, life stories, songs and diary entries. The range of writings is meant not only to connect readers to everyday, real-life sexual experiences, but also to stimulate creative, interesting and critical thinking about the inter-linkages between sexuality, power, rights, (under)development and various structures of inequality.

At the end of each thematic part, the reader will find a set of questions that acts as a guide for a systematic and critical approach to the key issues. Though this Reader attempts to use accessible language, analyses of African sexualities inevitably involve the use of complex and unfamiliar terms and concepts. For this reason, we have included a glossary at the end of book.

A final note concerns the authorship of the material. Almost all of the authors can be described as African writers, if the term African is understood as a geopolitical space. All of them can be termed African in the sense that the passion driving their research and writing comes from engagement with the idea that serious global knowledge creation requires that the lives, experiences, ideas and imagination of people throughout the continent be considered critically important.

The diversity of the authors defies categorisation: they are men, women, sex workers, intersexed and transgendered; they speak many languages and write, here, in English; they live in 16 of Africa’s 54 countries and in the diaspora; they have experienced multiple African realities; they live their own sexualities across diverse possibilities of desire, attraction, family creation, political activism and identity. When working with this Reader, it is also important to recognise that many of the authors represented here are prolific and previously published writers in addition to a crop of fresh and exciting new scholarship.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS 

* Edited by Sylvia Tamale, ‘African Sexualities’ is a groundbreaking volume, coming soon from Pambazuka Press.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News. 

NOTES

[1] The African philosophy of ubuntu (humaneness) refers to understanding diversity and the belief in a universal bond and sharing (Ramose 1999). Justice Yvonne Mokgoro of the South African Constitutional Court elaborated this difficult-to-translate concept:
In its most fundamental sense it translates as personhood and ‘morality’. Metaphorically … [it describes] the significance of group solidarity on survival issues so central to the survival of communities. While it envelopes the key values of group solidarity, compassion, respect, human dignity, conformity to basic norms and collective unity, in its fundamental sense it denotes humanity and morality. Its spirit emphasizes a respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation. (Quoted in Sachs 2009: 106–107)
[2] Adopted in 2003 and brought into force in 2005, the Maputo Protocol addresses the health and reproductive rights of African women in Article 14.
[3] The Maputo Plan of Action was adopted in 2007 as a strategy to implement the continental policy framework for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
[4] Launched in 2009, CARMMA was meant to speed up the process of implementing the Maputo Plan of Action.
[5] These facts are clearly reflected by the dominance of Western theories as well as the over-representation of South African scholarship in this volume.

REFERENCES

Adomako Ampofo, A. and Arnfred, S. (eds) (2010) African Feminist Politics of Knowledge: Tensions, Challenges, Possibilities, Uppsala, The Nordic Africa Institute
Phillips, Oliver (2011) ‘Teaching sexuality and law in southern Africa: locating historical narratives and adopting appropriate conceptual frameworks’, in Tsanga, A. and Stewart, J. (eds) Women and Law: Innovative Approaches to Teaching, Research and Analysis, Harare, Weaver Press
Ramose, M. (1999) African Philosophy through Ubuntu, Harare, Mond Books
Sachs, Albie (2009) The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law, London, Oxford University Press
United Nations Millennium Project (2006) Public Choices, Private Decisions: Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, New York, UN Millenium Project

 

>via: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/529

Documentary Channel Continues Black Docs Celebration w/ “BURN: The Evolution of an American City”

Trailer follows underneath:

The Shocking, Little-Known Story of the Worst Recorded Race Riot in American History

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 1, 2011 – Documentary Channel™ (DOC) continues its Black Documentary Cinema series with the premiere of director Harold Jackson III’s award-winning documentary film BURN: The Evolution of an American City on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 8pm (ET/PT)
A pair of independent filmmakers set out on a whim to learn more about the little known but worst recorded race riot in American History: The Tulsa Oklahoma Race Riot of 1921. Struck by the amazing complexity of such a ‘simple’ place, the duo set out to tell the story of how this one violent event had a lasting effect that shaped an entire city.  More than a view of the 1921 riot alone, BURN: The Evolution of an American City is a powerful exploration of eye-opening racial paradoxes, as well as a thought-provoking look at social, economic, religious and human ethics in the United States.

June marks the 90th anniversary of this devastating event.  The racially motivated conflict lasted for 16 hours, included aerial attacks, civilian mobs, and a declaration of martial law.  In the end, 35 city blocks were destroyed, many were dead, and 10,000 residents—all Black—were left homeless.
Black Documentary Cinema (BDC) is a monthly initiative presented by Documentary Channel, in conjunction with The Black Documentary Collective and Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers-West (BAD-West), dedicated to spotlighting the work of Black documentary filmmakers.  Watch BDC the last Tuesday of every month at 8pm ET/PT.
Documentary Channel is primarily available through satellite television services DISH Network (Channel 197) and DIRECTV (Channel 267).

Trailer follows below:

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tambay posted to Screening Sighting, Television, Trailer at 7:19 pm on June 1, 2011

2 June 2011 Last updated at 04:30 ET

Global war on drugs

'has failed'

say former leaders

Comments (614) 

Opiate use rose by 35% worldwide from 1998-2008, in spite of anti-drug efforts

Related Stories

• UK celebrities urge drugs rethink
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The global war on drugs has "failed" according to a new report by a group of politicians and former world leaders.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy report calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users.

The panel includes former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the former leaders of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, and the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

The US and Mexican governments have rejected the findings as misguided.

The Global Commission's 24-page report argues that anti-drug policy has failed by fuelling organised crime, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and causing thousands of deaths.

It cites UN estimates that opiate use increased 35% worldwide from 1998 to 2008, cocaine by 27%, and cannabis by 8.5%.

Cesar Gaviria said the US came in for criticism

The 19-member commission includes Mexico's former President Ernesto Zedillo, Brazil's ex-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, as well as the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and the current Prime Minister of Greece George Papandreou.

The panel also features prominent Latin American writers Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa, the EU's former foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and George Schultz, a former US secretary of state.

'No harm to others'

The authors criticise governments who claim the current war on drugs is effective.

Analysis

Adam Mynott BBC News

---

It is a damning indictment. The group of world leaders, including former Presidents of Mexico and Colombia which are blighted by the trade in illegal drugs, says urgent changes are overdue.

Their report says current policies to tackle drug abuse and the crime that preys on it are clearly not working, but result in thousands of deaths and rampant lawlessness.

It calls for an end to the 'criminalisation, marginalisation and stigmatisation of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others'.

The leading international figures behind the report do not pull their punches. They say sensible regulation of drugs is working in some countries but they accuse many governments around the world of pretending that the current war on drugs is effective when they know it isn't.

Drugs need to be decriminalised, they say, and addicts need to be treated as patients, not villains.

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won," the report said.

Instead of punishing users who the report says "do no harm to others," the commission argues that governments should end criminalisation of drug use, experiment with legal models that would undermine organised crime syndicates and offer health and treatment services for drug-users.

It calls for drug policies based on methods empirically proven to reduce crime and promote economic and social development.

The commission is especially critical of the US, saying it must abandon anti-crime approaches to drug policy and adopt strategies rooted in healthcare and human rights.

"We hope this country (the US) at least starts to think there are alternatives," said former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria.

"We don't see the US evolving in a way that is compatible with our (countries') long-term interests."

Many crimes

The office of White House drug tsar Gil Kerlikowske rejected the panel's recommendations.

"Drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated," said a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Making drugs more available - as this report suggests - will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe."

The government of Mexico, where more than 34,000 people have died in drug-related violence since a crackdown on the cartels began in December 2006, was also critical.

Legalisation would be an "insufficient and inefficient" step given the international nature of the illegal drugs trade, said National Security spokesman Alejandro Poire.

"Legalisation won't stop organised crime, nor its rivalries and violence," he said.

"To think organised crime in Mexico means drug-trafficking overlooks the other crimes committed such as kidnapping, extortion and robbery."

Your comments (614)

Imani Uzuri

“The Gypsy Diaries”

One of the most powerful & poignant singer song writers of our time ins embarking on her next musical project. Don’t miss your opportunity to contribute to what is sure to be another classic album. Ladies & gentlemen I give you Ms Imani Uzuri.

If you are unable to contribute feel free to spread the word.

Welcome to the Flash 500 Competition! When it comes to prizes, it often seems as though flash fiction is the poor relation of writing competitions. The time seems right to inaugurate a flash fiction competition where the prize money reflects the skill required to encapsulate an entire story in just 500 words.   Now in its second year, this quarterly open-themed competition has closing dates of 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December. The results will be announced within six weeks of each closing date and the three winning entries each quarter will be published on this website.   Entry fee: £5 for one story, £8 for two stories Optional critiques: £10 per story   Prizes will be awarded as follows: First: £250 plus publication in Words with JAM Second: £100 Third: £50 Highly commended: A copy of The Writer’s ABC Checklist   Payment options and entry instructions can be found on the Competition Entry Page                                                                                                               Send news of this competition to your followers

Guidelines for Awards 

 

Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry

50-75 page manuscript

$1,000 prize and publication

An entry fee of $25 must accompany the manuscript

Previously published eligible

Deadline: August 31, 2011

 

Click here for international submissions and online payment for both awards.

 

 

Serena McDonald Kennedy Award

No more than 50,000 word novella or 200 page manuscript of short stories will be accepted. Any well written manuscript on any topic will be considered. Previously published works may be entered.

An entry fee of $25 must accompany the submission.

$1,000 award and publication

Deadline: August 31, 2011

 

 

Mailing Address:

Snake Nation Press

2920 North Oak Street

Valdosta, Georgia 31602

Explore our site and visit our blog and tell us what you think.

SHORT STORY COMPETITIONS
- Entry Fees: £3 per story

First Prize: ☛  "WINNER TAKES ALL"  ☚ (Example: 250 entrants x £3 = prize money £750) - or equivalent in your currency - All winning stories, and commended entries, published in WORDS Magazine and in an online anthologies that will be produced after each competition.

1. Entry is open to all writers throughout the world.

2. Work should be typed, in double spacing, on A4 paper. E-mailed entries, as attachments, are acceptable providing the above format is followed.

3. Entries must be the writer's own work, not currently entered into any other competition and should not exceed 2000 words.

4. Author's name (or nom-de-plume) together with an approximate word count, must appear on the cover sheet. Manuscripts cannot be returned so we advise you to keep a copy for your records.

5. The winners will be notified by post and announced in the next available issue of WORDS Magazine and on this website. Unsuccessful entries may be submitted to other publications two months after the closing date.

6. Entries should reach us on or before the closing date advertised.

7. Authors may submit as many entries as they wish.

8. All entries, whether successful or not, will be considered for publication in either a future issue of Words Magazine, in the library pages of this website or in a compilation of stories sold as an ebook. In all instances the authors will be contacted prior to any such publication.

9. Email entries should be sent as single files and ideally saved as either .doc or .txt files.

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Postal entries should be sent to:
WORDS, PO Box 13574, London W9 3FX

Clear Marcus Garvey’s Name

(continued)

 

There are several concurrent efforts underway to clear Marcus Garvey’s name. If you are interested, you can assist in several ways:

 

1. Sign the petition: http://signon.org/sign/clear-marcus-garveys?source=c.fb&r_by=217693

 

2. Contact the White House directly: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

 

3. (North American readers) Contact the senators and representatives from your state

 

4. Add your name to H.Con.Res. 44 (111th): Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.

 

5. Tweet, Tweet, Tweet: http://signon.org/sign/clear-marcus-garveys?source=c.fb&r_by=217693 

 

6. “Like” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clear-Marcus-Garveys-Name/123156414434047?sk=wall

 

7. E-mail the link to your friends:

 http://signon.org/sign/clear-marcus-garveys?source=c.fb&r_by=217693 

Here is the text of H.Con.Res. 44 (111th)

 

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. CON. RES. 44

 

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.

 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 10, 2009

 

Mr. RANGEL submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.

Whereas Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, and emigrated to the United States;

Whereas Marcus Garvey was the founder and leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the largest Black organization in history, which was dedicated to the economic, social, and political empowerment of African-Americans and the fostering of unity between all people of African descent;

Whereas Marcus Garvey’s movement for humans rights, economic self-sufficiency, and cultural solidarity for peoples of African descent attracted millions of followers in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and Europe;

Whereas Marcus Garvey’s philosophy of uniting the people of the African Diaspora around a recognition of their common heritage and his teachings regarding pride, self help, and identification with Africa inspired Black leaders throughout the world, including W.E.B. DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King;

Whereas pervasive discrimination and subjugation of African-Americans in the United States created a climate of intolerance towards Black social activists, such as Marcus Garvey, and a determination by the United States Government to undermine and destroy the Universal Negro Improvement Association;

Whereas Marcus Garvey became the target of surveillance and harassment by Federal law enforcement agencies;

Whereas Marcus Garvey was arrested numerous times, with charges being dropped on each occasion, thus indicating that the arrests were solely for the purpose of harassing Marcus Garvey and disrupting the Universal Negro Improvement Association;

Whereas, after a zealous effort by Government authorities, which included infiltration of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Marcus Garvey was prosecuted and convicted of a single count of mail fraud by Federal authorities in 1923 and sent to prison;

Whereas Marcus Garvey, in connection with the severe criticism of his politically motivated conviction, submitted his first official application for Executive clemency in 1925;

Whereas, in 1926, nine members of the jury that convicted Marcus Garvey signed an affidavit recommending the commutation of his sentence;

Whereas, in response to the public outcry regarding the suspect nature of Garvey’s conviction, and on the action of the United States Pardon Attorney’s Office, President Calvin Coolidge commuted Garvey’s sentence in 1927, establishing the precedent for Executive clemency in this case;

Whereas Marcus Garvey, as a consequence of his conviction, was deported from the United States in 1927, never to return again;

Whereas Marcus Garvey maintained his innocence and his desire to be exonerated throughout the remainder of his life;

Whereas it is now widely accepted that the case against Marcus Garvey was politically motivated, the charges unsubstantiated, and his conviction unjust;

Whereas millions of petitioners have appealed for his exoneration;

Whereas Marcus Garvey’s body was returned to Jamaica in 1964, where he was officially declared the country’s first national hero;

Whereas Marcus Garvey is recognized as a towering figure in African, African-American, and world history; and

Whereas Marcus Garvey’s life and contributions to the United States should be recognized and appropriate steps taken to restore his name and reputation in this country: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--

(1) Marcus Garvey was innocent of the charges brought against him by the United States Government;
(2) Marcus Garvey is and should be recognized internationally as a leader and thinker in the struggle for human rights and dignity; and
(3) the President should endeavor to restore the honor and good name of Marcus Garvey through the granting of a full posthumous pardon that proclaims his conviction to have been unjust and unwarranted and affirms his innocence on the charges brought against him.

 

***

 

Related Sites:

 

 

http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house/house10cal/102con/271.pdf
http://www.marcusmosiahgarvey.org/images/HCONRES84.pdf
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hc110-24&tab=committees

http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/sound.asp (2 sound clips of his voice)

 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hc111-44 

 

PBS timeline:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/timeline/timeline2.html
FBI files:
http://www.marcusgarvey.com/wmview.php?ArtCat=10

 http://www.archive.org/details/MarcusGarveyHearingBeforeTheSubcommitteeOnCriminalJustice

 

FOI files:

http://www.archive.org/details/MarcusGarveysFbiFilePart1

 

Related articles

• Clear Marcus Garvey's Name (geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com)
• ACTION: Clear Marcus Garvey's Name (kalamu.posterous.com)
• Petition: Clear Marcus Garvey's Name (geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com)
• The Black Atlantic Resource online (repeatingislands.com)