Ospreyshire Origins: Art Theft series (Benin, Nigeria, Senegal)

Benin Lyrics:

[Yoruba]

O ti ja aworan wa
Mase paro ki o so pe o se awon ohun-oso wonti
Awon ile iso re je awon ewon
Je ki a je ki eyi se alaye si o

[French]

Rends-nous notre art maintenant!

Nigeria Lyrics:

[Igbo]

I bu ihe nleda anya

[Yoruba]

Nitori ti o ji wa aworan

[Hausa]

Bidajen kayan tarihin ku ya sa aka kama su. I ghotara?

You better return what’s ours!

Senegal Lyrics:

[Wolof]

Luy sa tiis?
Am nga tere xewoonu Afrig?
Yeena ngi saacee yi

[French]

Comprends maintenant?
Vous ne possedez pas notre histoire!

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Here’s a triple header for the Art Theft series! These were challenging songs to write lyrics and Art Theft: Benin was actually an Ospreyshire first for me. That was the first poem I wrote that contained absolutely no English words in it! The Senegal one was even tougher because I really had to work on my Wolof since you can’t use Google Translate or any easy online sources for example. Fortunately, I bought a book on a whim that has words and phrases in Senegal’s native language.

These three countries among others in Africa are quite ticked and rightfully so. Their art, crafts, and artifacts have been looted by Europe. They’re held in museums in that continent and these African nations are suing these countries to get their stuff back. To add insult to injury, some of these nations are giving things back…as LOANED items. No, I don’t want to see loans whether temporary or permanent. You stole them, so you give them back to these nations! I really hope these nations get full returns on their art.

Here are some videos from Dr. Mumbi about the matter:

Even Dr. Y. had some choice articles about this situation:

Europe’s Largest Museums to “Loan” Looted Benin (Nigerian) Artifacts back to Nigeria

Bronze Cockerel from Benin Kingdom to be returned to Nigeria

France urged to change heritage law and return looted art to Africa

Wouldn’t it also be crazy if this situation was featured in a mainstream movie even though a character is portrayed as the bad guy for wanting the artifacts back? Oh, wait… Side note: Notice how Benin is mentioned in this clip.

Say what you will about Killmonger, but he was absolutely right about his questions involving the curator’s “ancestors” and that’s historical fact even though Wakanda doesn’t exist.

Here’s another random fact: I’m also part Beninese and I have a tiny bit of Senegalese in my DNA from my mom’s side. #ForTheCulture

The Beninese flag is from Wikipedia.

The Nigerian flag image is from Wikipedia.

The Senegalese flag image is from Wikipedia.

All videos from the Dr. Mumbi show are from Dr. Mumbi’s YouTube channel.

The museum scene is from Black Panther and is property of Marvel Studios.

Belgium “apologizes” to the DRC even if it wasn’t for a reason I expected

As soon as I saw this video from Dr. Mumbi drop, I really really had to talk about it.

Some of you might remember me talking about the sins committed by Belgium to the Democratic Republic of Congo not too long ago. This issue is mentioned again although there was something I legitimately didn’t know about the colonial atrocities. Belgium is saying sorry because that country STOLE biracial Congolese/Belgium babies from the DRC (then known as the Belgian Congo), separated them from their parents, and subjected them in horrific conditions. Not only that, these Belgian poor excuses of fathers who impregnated the Congolese women backed off and didn’t want to be in their children’s lives. Come on, if the races were reversed, Bill O’Reilly would scream “Where are the fathers?!”. So these kids had to grow up bouncing around from orphanage or foster home while their baby daddies didn’t want to own up to what they did (although I really doubt all of those so-called fathers had consensual relationships with the moms given historical patterns).

This was new information for me, but I wasn’t shocked at all. This only made me angrier about everything that happened to the DRC. That country lived through that genocidal maniac King Leopold II who took over the Congo which is 5 times the size of his own home country and his people slaughtered 10 MILLION people and never got punished. Leopold and his regime shot, raped, maimed, and starved out millions and no historical institution is ever calling this a genocide. One form of punishment that he did was to chop off Congolese hands if they were disobedient or couldn’t make quotas for the natural resources. You see that picture in the thumbnail with the chocolate hands? That’s how they got the idea for that demonic dessert and it’s still sold in Belgium to this day! Seriously, Belgium needs to pay big reparations for all the atrocities they committed against the Congolese.

Before any of you say that the people of the DRC should “just move on” or “forgive”, let me ask you something. Are you going to say the same thing to the families of those related to the Holocaust victims/survivors? Are you going to say the same thing to the 9/11 families? If you’re not going to say those things to the families of those afflicted by those tragedies, then you’re a freaking racist hypocrite.

I hope justice happens.

Video courtesy of Dr. Mumbi Seraki.

Germany finally “apologizes” to Namibia?

This was certainly a surprise although not in the way that I had hoped.

Germany says they’re sorry to Namibia after committing genocide against that nation over a century ago. They’ve done things such as returning the skulls of the Namibians who were used in experiments and they’re just now returning Henrik Witbooi’s (a national hero for the Namaqua and Herero tribes) bible and whip back to their homeland.

That’s all well and good, but it’s is FAR from enough.

The Namibian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century as tens of thousands of people were slaughtered, raped, and starved out by the Germans who colonized their country and called it German Southwest Africa back then. This was perpetrated by the 2nd Reich who gunned them down and also used concentration camps such as Shark Island against the Africans. A whole bunch of people involved in that genocide would also be responsible for the Holocaust decades later. How is it that Germany is just NOW starting to say sorry? Is it because Namibia is rightfully suing that country to get reparations (which they totally deserve, by the way)?

More needs to be done. The real kicker was when the German politician is quoted saying “We can’t undo the past.”

I DARE her to say that to the families of Holocaust victims and see how it would turn out.

I hate this double standard of only giving reparations to everyone that suffered except any African ethnic or national group who suffered as well. Researching things like the Namibian Genocide only added to my anger against humanity as these people were killed while their oppressors never got punished for it. I’m sick of seeing innocent people like them get executed, get the Elephant Graveyard treatment (I’m going to keep reminding people about that analogy especially with Shark Island and also…screw Disney!), and sexually abused by the 2nd Reich. These atrocities should be talked about and I want the Namibians to get justice for what happened in their country.

NEVER FORGET!

Video courtesy of Dr. Mumbi Seraki.

Also, shout out to Dr. Y for talking about this issue on his blog Afro Legends. One of his articles about Namibia was even featured in Dr. Mumbi’s video.

Is the UN pressuring Belgium to pay off for what they did to the DRC?

This is a video I saw a few days ago, but I thought it would be good to share it on here with this blog.

What an interesting turn of events to say the least.

The UN is telling off Belgium to apologize and to pay reparations to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For those of you wondering why the DRC in particular, let me give you a breakdown of what happened. Belgium wanted to be a part of the Scramble for Africa and they managed to colonize what would be the DRC under the reign of King Leopold II. To the Belgians, he was known as “the builder king” as he did so many architecture projects in his home country and many of them are still up to this day. To the Congolese (or anyone with a shred of humanity), Leopold was a genocidal maniac. Him and his forces exploited the country for their natural resources, chopped off hands from those who disobeyed him, starved out and annexed several people like his own personal elephant graveyard where the Africans didn’t belong in his circle of life (I know that comparison was mentioned in an earlier article, but it bears repeating), and killed 10 million Congolese during his reign. Not to mention HE NEVER GOT PUNISHED FOR HIS ACTIONS! Can someone please explain to me why he’s never mentioned in the same sphere of infamy as Hitler, Pol Pot, or Stalin? Seriously, I never learned about this when I was in school.

A little side note about the middle of the video…that was the most satanic thing I have ever seen in my life. A guy dressed up in blackface while pretending to cry as a chocolate cake molded like a pregnant Black woman gets sliced by some attendees at a gala? How sick can you get? Shame on all of those people who did that.

Back to this story at hand, I do hope justice can be done. The DRC was exploited for far too long and I hope that their plight will be taken seriously.

NEVER FORGET!

The video is courtesy of the Dr. Mumbi Show.

#TrademarkWars: Have you no shame, Disney?

I know this is an older story, but I just have to talk about it.

I apologize if this issue is getting old especially for those in the aniblogger community, but holy crap…did Disney have to steal something else especially in regards to The Lion King? Ripping off Kimba the White Lion wasn’t enough for them?

Basically, Disney owns a trademark for the words “Hakuna Matata” which is stupid on so many levels for a common phrase in the Swahili-speaking community in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, Uganda, etc.). I also didn’t know that there was a popular song in the 70s that used the phrase in it’s chorus.

Sure, some of you are rolling your eyes to me bashing Disney since I am a former fan of The Lion King. Besides the shameless stealing of Kimba, I couldn’t stand some of the plot holes, the protagonist centered morality of Mufasa, and the racist implications of the hyenas (come on, you don’t think they sounded like ethnic stereotypes?). Not to mention the whole Elephant Graveyard situation is much more disturbing in hindsight when you research things like the Congolese genocide, the Namibian genocide, or the genocides against Native Americans to name a few where people where exiled and starved out at punishment. Makes me wonder if Disney fans see the hyenas as proxies for Black people to be punished at all costs while claiming that company isn’t racist for hiring minorities as some rhetorical dodge for it not being racist (strawman defeated). Please, that’s like saying the porn industry can’t be sexist because they hire women.

The thing isn’t just about trademarking a common Swahili phrase or for me ragging on Disney for their business practices. The bigger picture is cultural appropriation. One other example that Dr. Mumbi gave in the video was Louis Vuitton capitalizing on traditional Masai cloth by giving it the luxury treatment which is idiotic and offensive to me. Culture isn’t some free for all object for people to steal. I would bet you money if someone were to steal stuff from Louis Vuitton or any other big company, then lawsuits would be handed like candy on Halloween. Screw that double standard. If you want to incorporate something like someone’s culture then do it respectfully and pay the price for it.

This trademarking is so shameful on many levels. If you want to sign the petition about this matter, then here’s the link: https://www.change.org/p/the-walt-disney-company-get-disney-to-reverse-their-trademark-of-hakuna-matata

Video is property of Dr. Mumbi Seraki.

Mozambique gets $7.8 Million in settlements from British gem company. A rare event, indeed.

British Firm Agrees to Pay £5.8m to Victims of Abuse in Mozambique

First of all, I’d like to give props to Dr. Y and Dr. Mumbi Seraki for covering this story. Please check out the video and link above.

I couldn’t believe this just happened recently. In Mozambique, there are several ruby mines that got in control by Gemfields which is a British gem company. The problem is that their employees have physically and sexually abused the Mozambican people around the fields. They actually settled for $7.8 million for all the families of the victims. I’m shocked that a major company would give out that much money to all of those people. This is unheard of especially in an African nation where certain individuals and companies get away with atrocities like this all the time.

I’m ambivalent about what happened. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the victims are getting compensated for all of the suffering that happened to them. However, I think Gemfields should’ve paid way more since that amount is a drop in an ocean given their net profits. At least some justice was done, and I hope this starts a trend for the better, so no company gets away with it.

A Racist Idiot Goes to Uganda

[Warning: The above video contains strong language, racial slurs, violence, and making genocidal threats against Ugandans]

The level of stupidity is freaking mind-blowing, but I’m no longer surprised especially in this sociopolitical climate.

So there’s this pastor named Jimmy Taylor from Arizona who was there to do some missionary work in Uganda. While he was in Kampala (the capital and largest city), this Jimmy Taylor ignoramus freaks out and goes on a racial tirade while also assaulting a hotel employee. Thankfully, he got arrested in Kampala where he will be tried.

Anyone who knows me knows that I cannot stand racism. Whether it’s posting on here, my fiction projects, or even my film and anime reviews, should know that I don’t play around with that crap. I’ve lived through it, been discriminated, and I know I’ve been treated worse than my Caucasian counterparts in my life.

It was painful watching that video, and I had ambivalent feelings about Francis (the victim) dealing with Jimmy Taylor. I get that the employers may have fired him if he dared to fight back, but if that were me, then I would be so tempted to throw hands to defend myself. Come on, everyone. If the races were reversed and if some Ugandan guy decided to insult some Caucasians in America and assaulted the staff, he would be beaten or even killed by the police and that’s a fact. The level of entitlement and arrogance from Jimmy Taylor just sickens me. Why aren’t more people speaking out against this bigot?

The people of Africa did a great job for making this video go viral and Dr. Mumbi Seraki did a great story about this on her YouTube channel. I’ve certainly learned more about African news and culture watching her stuff online. People need to call out these racists.