Symposium on the Sub-Saharan Diaspora in Belgium

Last month, in collaboration with Afribel (United Afro Belgian Artist), Cemis (Center for Migration Studies, University of Antwerp), CGO Kasala (Afro Belgian Organisation created by Prof. Dr. Kabuta) and Cood, FOYER organized a ‘Symposium on the Sub-Saharan Diaspora in Belgium’ on 19 March 2009

FOYER is a nongovernmental organization concerned with migration and its consequences in Belgium. They do a great deal to help refugees and other immigrants to make a new home in Belgium. Multilingualism, social cohesion, refugees, women rights are some of the issues they try to tackle besides many more. They organize events, workshops, meetings, language courses, support groups etc. and help immigrants to organize themselves and be heard by the government.

This organization has been working for 40 years and therefore organized a Symposium on the Sub-Saharan Diaspora in Belgium. They invited representatives of the Afro Belgian communities and members of government to talk with each other and reflect on the presence of new communities within Belgium and its meaning for Belgium and Africa. Foyer wants to focus on the positive sides of migration, how everybody can gain something out of it, how it enriches Europe, and how it can influence Belgium’s relations with Africa.

On Foyer’s website you can see two video’s of approx. 30 minutes where you can follow the discussions tackled during that symposium. The languages in the video are Dutch and French.

The first video is about which role the African diaspora can play in Belgian and European cooperation. The second is about how to associate and motivate the African diaspora in the economical, social and political development of Africa.

Turkish reporter uses blackface to report on Obama

A Turkish reporter on Turkish TV wore blackface on while doing a report on United States President Barack Hussein Obama. The broadcast was on wednesday April 8th. But there are different translations and interpretations about what the reporter actually said and meant. I picked two of them.



The video


First translation

(Rough) Translation: Welcome, Mr. Obama. You took our hearts with your hospitality. We appreciate your kindness. We will do whatever America asks of us, as friends. Now, we ask the same of you.

The reason why the announcer is wearing black face paint is because he wants to show respect to President Obama. This is a real anchorman, and he is just trying to give a bit of a comedy act.

We inquire that you give us what we give to you. By all means, if someone translates this and I call you “black, Arab, or negro”, it does not mean I am disrespecting you. I mean no harm. We respect you.

The anchorman is also trying to show shame for what his country has done, so that is why his face is painted in black. The anchorman is saying that no politicians will directly tell the truth to President Obama while in Turkey. The anchorman says that Muslim terrorists attack inside Turkey, but the country does not renounce Islamic terrorism."

Second translation

Welcome Mr. Obama. You made us happy with your speech in Ankara with your open attitude and good will. However, we have some anxiety. Until now USA has always demanded and gotten what it wants [from Turkey] but now we have a request.

There is a proverb in Turkey which explains my current situation [with the black face]. “They who request something should have a black face, and they who do not give something should be black.” When they translate the word “black” from Turkish to English they might use words such as “Negro” or “Blackie.” Please do not be fooled with this translation. This word is not used to insult or belittle black people. In contrary, it is used in a sense that our face should be darker. Hence, I have painted my face black so that I can make a request to Mr. Obama.

Now to the point. We [Turkey] have had a problem for years with the terrorist organization PKK. You said that PKK is a common enemy to both our countries in your speech today. We are expecting serious and earnest cooperation from you [as opposed to Bush] in this subject. Give us actionable information [from northern Iraq] and we will do whatever is necessary if you do not want to do it. Instruct your allies in northern Iraq to cooperate with us in this subject. They are your “men” and they will obey you.

The second issue is about the “Armenian genocide.” In your speech today you said that your point of view in this subject has not changed. Please give us your support in this subject against the propaganda from the Armenian lobby.

Please continue with your support for Turkey's concession procedure to EU. Also, there is this subject of IMF. We do not want money from you, we want cooperation. You said in your speech that Turkey is an important allied to US. Give us what we want as allies and we will give you what you want.


Read:
New York Times news blog: Turkish TV Anchor Dons Blackface to Address Obama
Today's Zaman, The English-language newspaper in Turkey

Michelle Obama's emotional speech in a London school

Michelle Obama's visited a school in London and spoke emotionally to a group of students. All of them girls ages 11 to 17, two-thirds of whom speak English as a second language. "I am just very touched," Michelle told the girls, choking up with emotion as she spoke. "All of you are jewels."
Read: Michelle Obama Finds Her Role on the World Stage

Black people in Italy

Black people in Italy became visible internationally by the death of Abdul "Abba" Guibre, a 19-year-old Italian citizen originating from Burkina Faso, who was beaten to death in 2008 for the theft of a few cookies.

But there is also a new second generation emerging in Italy. Sons and daughters of African, Asian and Arab immigrants who are
becoming a part of new Italy. In the article 'Second generation: as they say in Italian Obama?' several talented young second generation Italians are interviewed about there plans for the future.

Black actors white stages

"We are still a white audience. If you're watching a cast of negroes, you are still looking at something which in a certain way is strange. We look with white eyes at a negro," said a white actor in a dicussion on TV about black actors in theatre plays.

The scene was a Dutch discussion between a black actor and two white directors. The background was the fact that the only black actor in the cast found some of the elements of his dialog in the play racist. He had to say: “She has the colour of shining hors manure”, which revert to the colour of a black woman. The line was eventually altered.

In the discussion a tape was shown about what a colleague actor had to say about the whole matter, he said: “We look with white eyes at a negro."

The moderator looked at the black actor and repeated what the white actor had said. The black actor answered: “I don’t see it as racist comment, this comment should be seen as part of the internal discussion.“

But it went on. There where more reasons why black actors have difficulties getting on the stages. “Plays aren’t written for black actors,” one director said. “It’s the same as with older woman, roles in plays are usually written for young woman.”

But in the discussion all parties agreed that nothing had changed over the years, black people are still barely seen in the theatres. But, as one of the directors noted, things where changing.

In the UK black playwriter Bonnie Greer is also waiting for change. In a column in the Guardian entitled ‘The white stages’ she wrote: “But subsidised theatre does have shareholders. Black people pay taxes, too. Yet we are consistently underemployed, underused. Invisible. I can hear the arguments out there about "emerging playwrights", and so on. We've been emerging for so long we should be in the stratosphere by now. But we aren't.”

I think that Bonnie Greer finally got her answer. The reason why black actors are underemployed, underused and invisible is that some people look with white eyes at a negro. That plays aren’t made for black people, and that black actors are the same as older woman.

By the way, the Dutch play was entitled ‘Black Face’. The story is not about the racist Black face theatrical makeup, but about a not accepted romance between a black man and a white woman.

UK Lola Adesioye about “Blacks, Whites hear Obama differently"

Lola Adesioye is a New York based Socio-Political Commentator who writes about race in the US and the UK. In a blogpost she makes some interesting comments about the story entitled “Blacks, Whites hear Obama differently.”
She writes: "The basic premise of the article is that Obama’s speech and mannerisms are coded in such a way that he can do and say things that black people will recognize and feel familiar and comfortable with, but that will slip under the radar of most white people. He can therefore “be black” and appeal to black people without overtly talking about race."
For instance whites didn't get the meaning of the ‘fist bump’ that Barack Obama and Michelle do, and the fact that Barack Obama plays basketball as opposed to golf.

WANTED: young video ambassadors for StrangerFestival 2009

StrangerFestival is looking for 10 ambassadors. Reward: travel to and stay in Amsterdam for the full festival in October. Apply before 1 April 2009!

What is an ambassador?
You are aged between 16 and 26, make videos yourself and use the Internet to show your videos. You have an online network of other young video makers, and are willing to ask them to upload their best videos on the Stranger website.

Stranger Festival

More black UK TV on the internet

Colourtelly is Britain's first black-interest television network providing several channels of drama, documentaries, music shows, children's prgrammes and news. It's on 24 hours a day on www.colourtelly.tv. Founded by the legendary great Black Briton Carroll Thompson in the summer of 2007 it now has viewers in every corner of the Uk and in many other parts of the world also.

Read: Coloutelly.tv the Guardian

Being black in Germany

Being black in Germany. If you always wanted to know what it’s like being a black German person living in Germany, then this is a video you must see. In the video writer and cross-cultural scholar Nguvi Kahiha explains the full spectrum of the black diaspora in Germany. He looks at the historical influx of blacks, which started over 400 years ago and shifts focus to the current Afro-German culture and past African-American presence in Germany, which includes W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington and Colin Powell. Nguvi Kahiha has a black African father and a white German mother

Some quotes:

“You are German or you are not. And since your black your not German anyway.”

“Afro-German are German born blacks with one parent African-American or African decent and another parent German decent. And blacks who have both black parent but are born into the German culture.”

“Historically, Afro-German where socially and culturally disconnected from the German society.”

Watch: Being Black in Germany

Dutch Tania Christopher from YouTube to MTV

Dutch Esmee Denters became famous singing on YouTube. Now Surinam Dutch Tania Christopher has also made her way to the top by singing on YouTube. Only 16 years young and already with her 2nd clip on TMF and MTV. See video




Tania Christopher ft. Yung Craze is the soundtrack of the Dutch movie Step Up

The winners of the UK Screen Nation Film & TV Awards

On February the 7th the winners of the Screen Nation Film & TV Awards where announced. Naomi Harris (picture) is one of the winners. The awards are the Black Oscars of the UK. The Screen Nation Awards are a celebration of the achievements of black people working in film and television in the UK, and overseas.

The anticipated Screen Nation Awards 2008 listed to take place on the 7th of December had been rescheduled to February 2009 due to the difficulties faced by a key partner.

Screen Nation was founded by Charles Thompson, an Independent Producer with 18 years' experience in the UK film and television industry. Thompson was also the co-founder of the BFM Film Festival.

The winners - best actors and best actress list

Male Performance in Film - Ashley Walters
In Bullit Boy
British actor (London 1982) of Jamaican descent



Male Performance in TV - David Oyelowo
Played in the TV film Five Days and appeared in film The Last king of Scotland
English actor (Oxford, 1976) of Nigerian descent




Female Performance in TV - Naomi Harris
Appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End
British actress (London, 1976)of Jamaican descent




Favourite Male TV Star (Public Voting) - Hugh Quarishie
Played as Captain Panaka, head of the Royal Naboo Security Force in the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
British actor (Ghana, 1954)





Favourite Female TV Star (Public Voting) - Tiane Benjamin
Appeared in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and also played Chelsea Fox in the long running
English actress (London 1984) of Sierra Leonean descent



Watch:
watch the Screen Nation red carpet video at Leicester Square TV

Full winners list

Outstanding Contribution - WHOOPI GOLDBERG

Edric Connor Inspiration - DON WARRINGTON

Vanguard in Production - TRIX WORRELL

Vanguard in Hair & Makeup Design - SHARON MARTIN

Achievement in Film Production - ADULTHOOD

Achievement in African Film Production - JERUSALEMA

Male Performance in Film - ASHLEY WALTERS

Male Performance in TV - DAVID OYELOWO

Female Performance in TV - NAOMI HARRIS

Favourite Male TV Star (PUBLIC VOTING) - HUGH QUARSHIE

Favourite Female TV Star (PUBLIC VOTING) - TIANA BENJAMIN

Independent Spirit Film Production - MELVIN: CHRONICLES OF A PLAYER - LAWRENCE COKE

Diversity in Factual Production - BLACK POWER SALUTE

Diversity in Drama Production - THE BILL

Best Music Performance on Film/TV (PUBLIC VOTING) – BASHY

Achievement in Screenwriting - ROY WILLIAMS (FALLOUT)

Emerging Talent - NONSO ANOZIE

Young Shooting Star - ADAM DEACON

Technorati Profile

French Oscar nominee - The Class (Entre les murs)

The French film 'The Class (Entre les murs' is the Oscar Nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
This portrait of a year in the life of a class of Parisian middle school students focuses on the ethnically diverse children who comprise the group and their dedicated teacher, François Marin. Unfolding almost entirely within the classroom itself, the story explores the diversity of personality and background among the students that makes Marin's work both challenging and rewarding.

The emerge of the black French - ‘Noirs’

Saying you're Black British, Zwart or Afro-Deutsch is a very normal thing to say when you are not French. But not until recently saying ‘Noirs’ or ‘Blacks’ in France was asking for trouble.

Recently black people in France saw that they lived in a condition were the mantra of equality, one of the founding principles of the Republic, didn’t work for them. The black French historian Pap Ndiaye wrote a book about the problem, and titled it ‘La condition noire’, The black Condition.

Ndiaye explains in an interview (see video) what that condition means. “The black condition in France is a way to feel French, while being considered as not French. If you are black, most people in Paris ask you all the time, where do you come from. As a way to tell you, you must be from somewhere else. You must be not French.”




Pap Ndiaye, French historian and Associate Professor at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris, drew wide attention in the current debate over diversity and representation in France with his book ‘La condition noire: essai sur une minorité française’ ,The Black Condition. An essay of a French minority. Ndiaye (1965), has a Senegalese father and a ‘French’ mother.

Pap Ndiaye is a member of Le Capdiv, Le Cercle d'Action pour la Promotion de la Diversité en France (The Circle of Action for the Promotion of Diversity in France).

Read:
Black Worlds University
Le Cran

Read more:

This intro explains the French background.

Racial and ethnic categories were until recently officially taboo in France, though in camouflaged forms they circulated widely in media and political discourse on the "integration" of immigrant minorities. In recent years, men and women of color have begun mobilizing as "Noirs" (Blacks) in ways that are hitherto unprecedented in France. Pap Ndiaye argues that the official invisibility of French Blacks, rather than being the logical and peaceful consequence of their integration into French society, can be analyzed as a consequence of discriminatory processes.

On an academic level, the situation is rather similar. In France, there are more books and articles published on African-Americans than on African-French or Carribean-French peoples. Indeed, African-American history is a well-established field in France. By contrast, studies on African immigrants, African students, Guadeloupean civil servants, etc, are scarce, and there is practically nothing on "French Blacks", as if this figuration had no legitimacy or meaning to describe past and contemporary social situations.

The situation is slowly changing, as more and more French acknowledge the existence of a sizable Black minority with specific problems and needs. Professor Ndiaye studies the reasons why this history has been so neglected, emphasizing ideological, political and academic reasons. He also discusses the legitimacy of the notion of "French Blacks" and analyzes the recent rise of Black organizations in France.
(update)

A video on what is it like to be black in France by British filmmaker Cecile Emeka - Update 2015