Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan wishes all of its listeners a happy new year after what we hope was a merry and fruitful Kwanzaa season.
We customarily open our account in the New Year with a review of the previous year, highlighting some of the key moments and guests from that year’s shows. This would have been all the more significant given that 6255 (2015) marked the completion of our first full year on Galaxy Radio. It was also a year that saw Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan once again honoured in Black Mental Health UK’s ‘Top 30 for 2015’ in the media section for the show’s “consistent coverage of BMH UK’s human rights and campaigns work has ensured our message reaches right to heart of key sections of the community that will never engage with mainstream media.” (1)
However, this all changed starting with unconfirmed reports emerging on January 1st and concluding with this posting via social media from Warrior Scholar and Activist Bro. Anthony T Browder a day later:
“At approximately 5:27 AM, on Saturday, January 2, 2016 Dr. Frances Cress Welsing departed the earthly realm and became an Honored Ancestor. At her bedside was Lorne Cress Love (her beloved Sister), Januwa Moja, Sabrina Johnson, Anthony Jones, Ama Giddins, two members of the Cress-Welsing Institute and myself. Preparations for Memorial Services are currently being planned for Washington, DC and Chicago. Information will be forthcoming within the next 10 days.”
Queen Mama Frances Cress Welsing was born on the 18th March 1935 in Chicago, Illinois. She received an M.D from Howard University in 1962 and had a long career as a psychiatrist. After getting involved in the Black Power Movement she developed into the revolutionary psychiatrist, Warrior Scholar that gave us “The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)” as a framework for Afrikans to identify and combat racism (white supremacy). Influenced by the work of Neely Fuller Jr (that he later published in The United Independent Compensatory Code System Concept a textbook/workbook for Thought, Speech and/or Action for Victims of Racism (white supremacy)). Fuller famously advanced the maxim:
“If you don’t understand racism/white supremacy, what it is and how it works, everything else you think you understand will only confuse you.”
He added that racism/white supremacy functions across the nine major areas of people activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. Before encountering the work of Neely Fuller Mama Welsing considered herself a Marxist but confronted by his revelations she found the German theorists framework inadequate at getting to the “Why?” of racism/white supremacy. In 1969 she drafted The Cress Theory and published it a year later. The theory includes this excerpt:
“The Color-Confrontation theory states that the white or color-deficient Europeans responded psychologically, with a profound sense of numerical inadequacy and color inferiority, in their confrontations with the majority of the world’s people — all of whom possessed varying degrees of color-producing capacity. This psychological response , whether conscious or unconscious, revealed an inadequacy based on the most obvious and fundamental part of their being, their external appearance. As might be anticipated in terms of modern psychology theories, whites defensively developed an uncontrollable sense of hostility and aggression. This attitude has continued to manifest itself throughout the history of mass confrontations between whites and people of color. That the initial hostility and aggression came only from whites is recorded in innumerable diaries, journals and books written by whites. Also, records indicate that only after long periods of great abuse have non-whites responded defensively with any form of counterattack. This perplexing psychological reaction of whites has been directed towards all people with the capacity to produce melanin. However, the most profound aggressions have been directed towards Black people, who have the greatest color potential and, therefore, are the most envied and feared in genetic color competition.” (2)
Not surprisingly, the theory generated considerable controversy yet many Afrikans have found her arguments compelling, not least in the way it overturned racist European obsessions with “black pathology” and put European behaviour itself under the microscope. Mama Marimba Ani’s 1994 master work Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior: African-Centered Critique of European Thought and Behavior , could be said to be in this tradition.
Over the years Mama Welsing wrote a number of revolutionary and far-sighted essays including : The Politics Behind Black Male Passivity, Effeminization, Bisexuality and Homosexuality (1974); Learning to Look at Symbols (1979); Ball Games as Symbols: The War of the Balls (1976); The Symbolism, Logic and eaning of”Justifiable Homicide” in the 1980s (1991); Racism and Black Child and Youth Inferiorization (1987) and Black Fear and the Failure of Black Analytical (Ideological) Commitment (1979), all of which and more were compiled in the 1991 collection, The Isis (Yssis) Papers: The Keys To The Colors.
Another of Queen Mama Frances Cress Welsing’s key contributions was a framework from discerning the symbolism of white supremacy (e.g. her 1976 essay Ball Games as Symbols: The War of the Balls) that even found its way into popular culture in films like boomerang (https://youtu.be/Q_1dZe-yFjI) and TV shows like the Real McCoy and in the Hip-Hop community through the work of groups like Public Enemy and Precise Science.
Community prayers and tributes have already been observed that the Pan-African Congress Movement Birmingham and Manchester branches with details of a London still to be announced. As guide, Bro. Tony Browder provided this exhortation:
“Family and friends request that we can best honor Dr. Welsing by becoming a living testament of her work and manifest the greatness of our Beautiful Melaninated selves in our speech and actions.”
(1) http://www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk/index.php/home/bmh-uk-announcements/1660-bmh-uk-launch-top-30-list-for-2015-
(2) Welsing, Dr Frances Cress, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy) in The Isis (Yssis) Papers: The Keys To The Colors (1991) Third World Press, p 4-5.
So we ask the question:
How should we honour Mama Frances Cress Welsing?
1. Are you familiar with the work of Queen Mama Dr Frances Cress Welsing?
2. Why was her work considered controversial?
3. Has the Cress Theory been utilized enough since its inception?
4. How can we become “a living testament of her work”?
5. Does the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament recognise The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)?
We invite all listeners to call in and share their perspectives on the life and legacy of this most esteemed Queen Mother warrior Scholar.
Our special guests are:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.
Invited international guests (to be confirmed)
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The UNIA-ACL government is saddened by the recent transition and elevation from this physical life. She will be missed yet never ever forgotten. We know her gigantic works shall be revered and emulated, by those who appreciated her solid contributions in making us aware and informed of the system of white supremacy. Certainly she shall live, rise and continue in the Afrikan Spiritual Whirlwind Ancestral Realm with Garvey and so many other great contributors to Africans those at home and abroad and the entire world. She fought the fearless revolutionary battle and shall continue in the Ancestral Realm as she passes through her last Rites of Passage. We Give Thanks Queen Warrior Dr Frances Cress Welsing for your scientific, accurate and eye opening research , writings and many, many Lectures. Rise In Power Afrikan