British rap pioneer Derek B dies at 44

Derek B (44), one of the UK's first hip-hop stars and the first British rapper to appear on Top of the Pops, has died of a heart attack. The London-born rapper scored top 20 hits with Good Groove and Bad Young Brother in 1988. Read full story here.

Derek R.I.P.

Blackface: Black Peter (zwarte Piet) and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands

It’s Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) and black Peter time in The Netherlands. Which means blackface characters in the streets, in the shops and in the schools. The Sinterklaas feast is an annual children’s event, which starts in the middle of November and peaks on the birthday of Sinterklaas on December 5th. The whole event revolves around presents, so this is retail primetime of the year.

But the black Peter character in the Sinterklaas event has become controversial over the years. Some black people feel the black Pete character is racist, but others feel the black Peter discussion is too serious. The popular opinion in Netherlands is, that the Sinterklaas feast is a part of the Dutch culture and identity, and that it should be protected at all costs. Black Peter is not a black person, he's a chimney sweeper.

Black Peter: offensive or just fun? (Dutch)

"I Like it, but somehow it's racist. Because of black Peter of course. Those things happened during slavery. It still happens."

Dutch writer Lulu Helder was the first who actively protested against the black Peter character. In the Amsterdam district Bijlmer (the urban part of Amsterdam) she pamphleted a primary school with the message: zwarte piet is zwart verdriet (black Pete is black grief). See her take on the matter here.

It obvious that black Pete is racist. Before this became an issue, black Peter often spoke broken Dutch with a Surinamese accent. After the protests black Peter gradually stopped speaking "pigeon" Dutch.

So to end, some more videos on this matter.

First: Sinterklaas in Amsterdam. This it what you might see if you happend to be in Amsterdam near the Rijksmuseum in November. P.s. There's also a black man as black Peter in this video.


Black Peter: what exactly is the problem?

"Yes, I like Sinterklaas. I celebrated it when I was a kid . Then it didn't bother anyone if it was black Pete. When you're a kid you don't look at it too seriously. It doesn't bother children. I don't think adults should make a big deal out of this. It's just fun for everyone.".

Black Peter from an American perspective

UK film /event: ‘Find her keep her’ Official Premiere

Spotted on Madnews
The premiere of the highly aniticipated UK film Find Her Keep Her will finally take place on the 20th November. Premiere: 20-11-09 Vue Cinema, The O2 Centre, Greenwich, London.

Set in london, FIND HER KEEP HER is about 3 friends out in search for MRS.RIGHT.T his movie stars Kojo(MTV Base comedian), Rachel Ritfeld( MTV's hip hop candy), Bianca Simmone, Jordan Pitt, Natalie Duvall, Raymond Burrell, Alison Naomi.

This film is, in a certain way, a real black European film, because one of the stars is Surinam Actrice/model Rachel Ritfeld. Surinam born Riffeld has lived in Belgium, and now lives in England.



Film synopsis:

They are the wealthiest players in town. They live the fast life,drive fast cars,live in plush apartments in the posh areas of London. Life can’t be better, money, fame the girls, but one thing they aim for is finding her and keeping her.
Jide, a property developer lives with his fiancée of 4 years, Abi. He’s a workaholic who hardly spends time with Abi. He loves her to death and wants to marry her, but oblivious to him, she has a dark secret.
Fred,an entrepreneur lives the lifestyle of a young millionaire. He cruises in the latest cars in town. Owns a few bars from west London to north London. Hes a big spender who loves to floss. But inside this larger than life character is a baby, crying to be loved and cared for. Fred cannot commit to a woman for fear of being heart broken and used. He feels every woman he meets is after his money. But he meets Michelle. Can he keep her?
Chike, a systems analyst works in one of london’s top prestigious software companies. He works hard and plays hard equally. He has ambitions of owning his own software company. He’s a self proclaimed player who has little or no respect for women. He lives a comfortable life,loves flashy fast cars and WOMEN. He has a 6yr old son from a previous relationship. But what happens when he meets Simone, an independent, sophisticated woman.

For more information: www.godsonmedia.com

Sabrina Starke wins the Edison Public Prize (Netherlands)

Dutch Jazz / Pop Singer Sabrina Starke confirmed her status as fan favourite by winning the Edison Public Prize. Earlier this year Starke won the Edison Best Pop award for best newcomer. She receives the Public prize for her debut album Yellow Brick Road. Starke is under contract with Blue Note Records.

The Public Prize is an initiative of the Edison Foundation and Jazz Magazine. In recent months readers of the magazine voted for their favourite artist and album. Starke received over 42 percent of the vote, chased by the Wicked Jazz Sounds Band with their album The Biggest Sin.

A Woman's gonna Try; The new Official Music video by Sabrina Starke , from her album Yellow Brick Road (C) bluenote 2009

Black media organisation AFROTAK wins second prize in competition “RESPEKT GEWINNT!“ (Germany)

The Afro-German media organisation AFROTAK cyberNomads has been awarded second place for its contribution in the competition „RESPEKT GEWINNT!“ of the “Berlin counsel for Democracy”.

The award ceremony of the Berlin counsel for Democracy will be held 02/12/2009 at 18.30h in HEIMATHAFEN in Neukölln.
More information at: www.berlinerratschlagfuerdemokratie.de

AFROTAK cybernomads was awarded second prize for the spoken word video, were black German, Afro German and blacks in Germany were invited to perform a spoken word piece about respect, tolerance and humanity.



After been awarded as BEST MEDIA Projekt 2005 by the African Youth Foundation, and as BEST MEDIA Projekt 2008 by Foundation for Democracy and Tolerance of the federal government, this new price will be added to the list.

AFROTAK cyberNomads

Dutch television host criticised for impersonating a black woman

Is it blackface or not, that is the question. Dutch television host Wendy van Dijk transformed herself into a stereotype black Antillean woman to fool Dutch Celebs. She called her Lucretia Martine, the weather woman from Curaçao. It was a transformation like Eddy Murphy did in the Nutty Professor. But there is one big difference, Wendy van Dijk is a white woman.

The television show is a big hit in Holland, already 2 million viewers watched the first show. But not everyone is happy with Van Dijk's creation. Surinam Actress and Singer Lucretia van der Vloot and and Author Clarck called it ridiculous.



Within the Surinamese and Antillean community there is criticism that Van Dijk stereotyped Antillean women: thick lips, fat ass, lazy, and always talking about sex.

But the criticism of Van der Vloot and Accord is not about the fact that she impersonated a black woman, but that she played an Antillean woman, but talked as Surinam woman. Which is the same as playing an American woman, but talking like a Jamaican. Writer Accord feels that Van Dijk should have known better, because she went to a black urban school in Amsterdam Bijlmer.

Wendy van Dijk’s act also sparked criticism on the media in general. At this moment Van Dijk’s Antillean woman is the only 'black' woman on Dutch television. Black people aren't underrepresented they have become totally absent on Dutch television.

Van Dijk says she doesn't understand the criticism: "I am only trying to play a funny, independent and well spoken woman."

The marketing agency of the Dutch Antillean island Curacao is happy with Van Dijk’s Curaçao woman act. They have offered her a contract to promote the Island.

Van Dijk also played a Japanese woman called Ushi, Lucreatia Martina, the weather woman from Curaçao, is her latest creation.

Update: see the interesting discussion on Shadowandact about blackface and and the Dutch Antillean character here

KINGSMEAD EYES: black children documented their world (UK)

Spotted on Africa is a country
Kingsmead Eyes is the result of a unique collaboration between photographer Gideon Mendel and 28 pupils from Kingsmead School in 
Hackney. The children documented their world over six months, photographing their friends, families, community and school to create an accomplished and vibrant body of work. At the same time, Mendel, working in parallel to the children made portraits of every child in the school as well as also documenting the life of the area.

This video installation is part of the Kingsmead Eyes exhibition on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood from 7 November 2009 till 7 February 2010.

The Kingsmead Estate, home to many of the pupils, is recognised as among the highest 4% for deprivation in the UK. The estate has suffered from a negative reputation in the past but conditions have improved in recent years and regeneration initiatives have encouraged a stronger sense of community. The school has played a major role in this turnaround, striving to achieve the highest standards with academic achievement above the national average – all the more impressive considering that 85% of pupils speak English as a second language. The success and creativity of the school has long been a source of local pride. For this project the ten year-old pupils were trained in the use of digital cameras in a series of workshops led by photographer, Crispin Hughes.

Kingsmead Eyes

A very interesting view in the lives of young black European children.

Singer Izaline Calister won the Dutch Edison Award 2009

Dutch Antillean singer Izaline Calister won the Dutch Edison Award 2009 in the category Jazz/world music. The Edison Awards are Grammy Awards of The Netherlands. She received the Edison for her album Speransa. The award ceremony will be held on November 19th.

Calister’s first videoclip just has been released. The song is called ‘Mi Pais’ (My Country) and tells about her love for her sometimes hampered island. It is a track of her latest cd-release, ’Speransa’. The clip is shot on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao.

Izaline Calister's official website

Marie NDiaye is the first black woman to win France’s top literary prize (Prix Goncourt)

Today French-Senegalese writer Marie NDiaye (42) won France's top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for her novel Trois femmes puissantes [Three Strong Women], a novel on family, betrayal and the hellish ordeal of illegal migration from Africa. She is the black woman to win the prize.

Marie NDiaye was born in France, she is the daughter of a French mother and a Senegalese father. NDiaye was raised by her French mother in Pithiviers, a provincial town south of Paris. After her father returned to Senegal, she did not travel to Africa until she was in her 20s. She now lives in Berlin with her three children

Marie NDiaye is the sister of historian Pap NDiaye.

Marie NDiaye: “I grew up in a world that was 100 percent French. My African roots don’t mean much, except that people know of them because of the color of my skin and my name,” she said recently.

“I don’t represent anything or anyone,” she said. “I have met many French people raised in Africa who are more African than I am.”

While she rages at the discrimination still faced by French blacks, NDiaye says she has been sheltered by her writer career.

“I have always had a quite special, marginal life, the life of a writer lucky enough not to have to ask anyone for anything,” she said.(AP)

It’s great achievement for a black woman in France, and it’s also a sign that France is changing. But there’s one thing about Marie N Diaye that leaves me puzzled. She says her African roots don’t mean much to her, but she does write about Dakar and the black migration experience. Apparently roots does matter.

Entretien Marie Ndiaye
Geüpload door fluctuat. - Bekijk de laatste nieuwscontent.

Trois femmes puissantes [Three Strong Women] is the book beneath the French media’s spotlight this rentrée. Three, tenuously linked narratives. At their heart, three women who say no.

Forty year-old Norah arrives at the home of her father in Africa. An egocentric tyrant, he has now become silent and bulimic, and spends his nights perched in a tree in the courtyard. Why did he ask her to come? The answer, Norah discovers, is worse than she could have ever imagined.

Fanta, who used to teach French in Dakar, had to follow her partner, Rudy, to France. Here, Rudy proves incapable of providing her with the rich and joyful life she deserves. He remains under the morbid influence of his mother, who dedicates her life to convincing her entourage of the existence of angels.

Destabilised, Rudy wanders through an angry reality, while Fanta, by his side, is a rock. Khady Demba is a young African widow. Penniless, she tries to find her distant cousin, Fanta, in France. The long journey of emigration she pursues will be punctuated with unspeakable suffering. (source: French book news)

Read: Black woman wins Prix Concourt for the first time

Singer Leona Lewis talks of experiencing racism in London store

Photo and copyright: Ken Mckay - Leona Lewis with her parents at the X Factor UK (2006)
Spotted on Madnews
Singer Leona Lewis talks about experiencing racism in a trendy London store. An experience that left her devastated and angry.

Via The Daily Mail

‘I went into a shop while my dad waited outside because he was on the phone,’ she says. ‘I picked out a few photo frames, put them on the side to buy them and asked the lady who worked there about some other stuff in the shop.

‘She was incredibly stand-offish with me and I couldn’t understand why. I went up to the till and, at that point, my dad came in and started looking around. He picked something up and said, “What about this?”

‘I asked how much it was, but the woman told us to get out of the shop. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing and said, “Excuse me?” She said, “Get out of my store right now.”

‘I looked at her and asked, “Are you joking?” She said, “No, I want both of you to remove yourselves from my store.” I asked her what she meant, and why, and she said, “I don’t like the look of him.”

Pointing at my dad, she said, “I want him to go right now.” Stunned, I asked her, “What do you mean, you don’t like the look of him?” She said, “You know exactly what I mean. He’s been standing outside my shop and I want him to go. I know why you’re coming in here.”

‘She was implying that we were trying to steal stuff. She came up to my face, this close.’ Leona holds her hand a few inches from her face. ‘She was so loud, shouting, “Get out right now or I’m going to call the police.”

‘It was so shocking and disgusting. I couldn’t believe someone was shouting at me in front of so many people. I can’t stand confrontation anyway, but she was so rude. I completely lost it. I was crying and bawling. My dad said, “Come on, let’s go.” I said, “No. I’m not going. I’m going to call the police. This is racism.”

‘I was so angry. My dad had to drag me out of the shop. Afterwards, I sat in the car for ten minutes and was so upset. My dad was trying to calm me down but I was furious. What happened was awful – absolutely awful.

‘I’d never experienced anything like that, and I would never wish anyone else to. Being judged by the colour of your skin is horrible. My dad is really laid-back. He said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve experienced stuff like that many times, especially when I was younger, so don’t be upset for me. I’m fine.”

‘Do you know what he did? He got my CD, went back in the shop and said, “You’ve just offended a really nice young lady. I just want to leave you this, so you can look and see who it is. This is my daughter. I’m not trying to cause trouble, but I wanted you to see that.”‘

I understand her father’s reaction, he wanted to show that his daughter is a famous singer. But this is racism, period. It's good Lewis talked about it, but they should really make a case of this and name the store.

Bonnie Greer versus the extreme right-wing BNP (UK)

BBC One's Question Time on October 22 was one of the most controversial television events this month. Live on television, the leader of the extreme right-wing British National Party(BNP) on the panel of the BBC's Question Time. Also on the panel was black British American playwright Bonnie Greer.

The BNP's website referred to Greer as a "black history fabricator" for her work on the radio documentary In Search of the Black Madonna, which was, it said, an "Afrocentrist daydream".

Back to BBC's Question Time. To be honest it wasn't a strong performance of Greer. She said." I don't know much about politics, my background is culture." And it showed. But also a line as," Nick and I, both have an undergraduate degree in history". Nick and I? That's not the way you talk about someone who is an honoured guest of the KKK.

We know that Greer hates the BNP, but she is culture, so let her stick to that. Don't ask her to debate with a notorious racist.

read: BNP leader Nick Griffin savaged by Question Time panellist Bonnie Greer

In the video she discusses the claim of the BNP that Winston Churchill could have been a member of the BNP. Churchill had made some anti-immigration remarks.

German reporter criticised for posing as black man in film

German reporter Günter Wallraff spent over a year travelling through Germany disguised as fictional Somalian man Kwami Ogonno for the film Schwarz auf Weiss ( Black on White ). His goal was to experience racisme at first hand, so he put on a blackface for the occasion.

And he succeeded. In East-Germany – of course - he was attacked by drunken youth. Read the full story here.

But Afro-German Noah Sow, author of Deutschland Black & White, criticised Walraff: “A painted white person is not a black person and cannot have the same experiences even if he thinks he can,” said Noah Sow, author of Everyday Racism in Germany . “Wallraff is earning money and respect on the backs of oppressed minorities.”

If you're not acquainted with Germany this film may seem as an eye opener, but racism in Germany doesn't need to be uncovered. Long before the 2006 FIFA World cup football tournament even the FIFA warned people of colour to stay away from the “rural areas” in East German Berlin.

And Günter? I think he wanted to be on the news again, but this time with a racism show with hidden cameras. If he really wanted to expose racism he could have used the black guy in the film. But I think the sole purpose of this black man was just to legitimate his blackface.

See shots of the film in the interview (German)

Last Moroccan leaves the Netherlands

What if all the Moroccans in the Netherlands were to pack up and leave? This is the question posed by an internet video.

In the video A man cycles in his dressing gown to collect his own newspaper from a pile in the street – the Moroccan delivery man has left the country. Streets are strewn with litter, buildings fall into disrepair. Stranded commuters queue for taxis, with no one left to drive them. “Last Moroccan leaves today,” reads the newspaper headline, as a plane overhead flies south. “Last Moroccan leaves the Netherlands”

Moroccans tend to feature in the Dutch media as young criminals, causing nuisance in the street, hurling abuse at gays and women, and carrying out muggings and robberies. Or indeed as Muslims struggling to integrate, in a debate driven by anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party. Mr Wilders has said he would not hesitate to deport Muslims who commit crimes or fail to integrate into Dutch society – and his party is riding high in the polls.

An interesting video of a minority group under pressure. But for a community who has been in the Netherlands since the sixties, it is very one sided view. It seems that they will only be missed if the newspaper is not being delivered anymore.

Although their unemployment rate is the highest of all minority groups the Netherlands, there is a large group of young and ambitious Moroccans who are successfully entering the professional sector. This video is more a street view.

I wonder how a video entitled "Last black person leaves Europe" would look like.

Read “Last Moroccan leaves the Netherlands”