TENDAI MWARI (Be thankful unto the Creator)

As Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan celebrates its 300th show on Galaxy Radio, we give I-ternal love to Chief Pa Kombrabia and the Galaxy Management for their vision, and resilience for three and a half decades in building and maintaining the towering edifice that is “The Only De-Brainwashing Station.”  After over 350 broadcasts of Afrika Speaks on another station, the Chief reached out to us to officially join the Galaxy family, we say officially because we were already (and always have been), as is the global Afrikan community, members of the Galaxy family.

This new phase of familyhood began on December 15^th 6254 (2014), almost six years ago. That show, was hosted by Sis. Kai Ouagadou-Mbandaka and Bro. Omowale Kwaw. Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka sat in as resident guest and they were joined in the studio by young lion ShakaRa, who would not only go on to be a formidable host of the show but was also instrumental in raising the profile of Afrika Speaks across various media platforms.  The international guest, appropriately, was none other than the then President General of the UNIA-ACL, Baba Senghor Jawara Baye.

In the last six years we’ve scoured the globe for guests with insight and resonance (such as Baba Chinweizu, Prof. Kwesi Prah, Obadela Kambon and Baba Buntu in the Motherland, Mama Bayyinah Bello and Mutabaruka in the Caribbean, Mama Marimba, Molefi Kete Asante Ani, Mambo Ama Mazama and Dr Maulana Karenga in the USA and Bros Abiola Sow and Abuy Nfubea in Europe), providing Afrikan-centred analyses of the current condition of Afrikan people – always with the objective of moving us towards nation building and ultimately liberation.

One of our most frequent guests, addressing one of our most enduring issues was Sis. Marcia Rigg regarding Black Deaths in Custody, an issue that in recent months has been at the top of the global agenda.  It was our solemn duty to feature as often as possible, so many of the bereaved families, still seeking justice, Afrika Speaks will remain a platform for them.

In addition to getting behind the headlines of contemporary affairs, we also found it necessary to highlight the legacies of some our most renowned warrior scholars that have passed into the Ancestral Realm, for example Babas like John Henrik Clarke, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Bobby E Wright and Amos Wilson and Mama Frances Cress Welsing.

As Baba John Henrik Clarke reminds us, “whatever we do if it’s not about nation building it’s not about anything.” and this imperative has always informed our approach to every show. Thus, we deal with youth violence and raising (or rather rearing) warriors through the lens of Rites Of Passage with luminaries like Mwalimu Bomani Baruti and Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka and programmes including Manhood Academy, Womanhood Academy, Origin and Akua.

The UK education system continues to blight successive generations of our young people. Our remedy to this is our   constant advocation of Afrikan-Centered Education, highlighting the work of Sis. Cheryl Phoenix’s The Black Child Agenda, fighting the “School to Prison Pipeline.”  There was also our ground-breaking three-part lecture series ‘Education Strategies for Nation-Building’ featuring internationally renowned Education Consultant Sis. Rosemary Campbell-Stephens.

While the journey continues, we invite back all the previous hosts of Afrika Speaks to engage in some Sankofa Vibrations.  Alas, one previous host that we are unable to invite back is our beloved Sis. Nkechi Ode, who passed into the Ancestral Realm on March 30^th this year.  Sis. Nkechi was a guest host on the previous iteration of the show but still very much a part of the Afrika Speaks story.

We work hard to make Afrika Speaks engaging, meaningful and part of the spiritual-cultural revolution upon which our nation building efforts must be founded.  This very brief synopsis, barely captures the scope and range of subjects and guests on the show.  However, we are happy to say that recordings of many of our shows can be found on our Mixcloud page.

So we say a massive, Tatenda, Medase Pa, Modupe, or even thank you to our numerous guests over the last six years but even more to you the listeners that have tuned in, phoned and texted in to support Afrika Speaks and help make Galaxy Radio the very definition of A FI WE STATION.

The Afrika Speaks synopses have become an integral part of the show’s production over the years and as we look back over the last 299 shows, we share some of these below from shows number one (2014), one hundred (2016) and two hundred (2018).

TENDAI MWARI

Tonight:

We celebrate 300 shows of Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio 2014-2020

1) Do you have any highlights over the last 6 years?

2) What are the most pressing issues facing Afrikans globally?

3) How successful have we been in addressing them?

4) What will the state of the Afrikans race be in 6 years-time?

Show #1: State Killings/Ebola.  Monday 15^th December 6254 (2014)

Monday 15/12/14 will be known for the day that the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement (ARM), one of Afrika UK’s leading Pan-Afrikan organisations joined forces with leading community radio station Galaxy (www.galaxyafiwe.com) in an irresistible union, combining almost 60 years of service to the Afrikan community. 

ARM bring their award winning “Afrika Speaks” format to the only de-brainwashing station,” reviving their old Monday evening 8pm-10pm slot. Veteran broadcasters Sis. Kai Ouagadou-Mbandaka and Bro. Omowale take the reigns for their unique mix of news, comment, interviews, music and that all important community interaction. They will be joined on the journey by resident guest Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka, Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and newly appointed UK Ambassador for the UNIA-ACL.

For this historic first show first show we will be joined live from the USA by the man who sits in the seat of The Most Eminent Prophet & King His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey, in fact the 9^th successor and 10^th person to occupy the role – UNIA-ACL President General Baba Senghor Jawara Baye Heru.   President General Senghor ‘s input is all the more significant in light of this being UNIA-ACL’s centenary year and on the back of his highly successful UK tour back in Mosiah.

State Attacks on Afrikans

Baba President General Senghor will be updating us on one of our main subjects the ongoing situation in the USA in light of the high-profile state killings of unarmed Afrikans Michael Brown and Eric Garner and subsequent let offs for their killers. Caught on video, the Garner outcome in particular sparked global protests, yet this case, as well as Brown’s and even 12-year old Tamir Rice follow a predictable pattern. Killed by the state, demonised in the (European) media, exonerated by the state.  Therefore, the main question should be

Ebola

Our other main topic Aside from the differing perspectives on its origins (ranging from laboratory creation to cross-species virus transmission, the parts of west Afrika are still in the grip of the Ebola crisis  The USA, that classified the situation as a “global security threat,” took the curious step of sending several thousand soldiers (as opposed to doctors) to a medical crisis. 

Some of the questions both these crises invite include:

1. Can the state killing protests finally develop into to the proactive mass movement that the global Afrikan community sorely needs?
2. As the Jimmy Mubenga case heads to its conclusion, while that of Azelle Rodney still has some way to go, are these (and other similar) UK based tragedies getting the coverage and support they deserve?
3. Where do think Ebola comes from?
4. Irrespective of its origins, why does Afrika seem so ill equipped to deal with the Ebola pandemic and other major crises, relying on external help?

HAVE YOUR SAY!

Phone: 07983 852 952 or 07538 005 634

Text: 07572 222 156

102.5FM / www.galaxyafiwe.com

Show #100: Sean Rigg – Justice delayed, denied and demolished? Monday 14^th November 6256 (2016)

Although there has been copious coverage on events in the USA, there was a significant decision make in the UK on November 8^th, the very day that Americans wants to the polls to elect Donald Trump.  After just hours of deliberation, the jury at Southwark Crown Court returned a verdict of not guilty at the perjury trial of police officer Paul White.

Sgt White was one of the custody sergeants at Brixton police station on the evening of 21st Mosiah (Aug) 2008, where 40-year-old Sean Rigg died whilst being detained.  In Mosiah 2012, an inquest jury at Southwark Coroner’s Court returned a verdict criticising the actions of the police, including the unsuitable use of force on Bro. Sean. 

This case was not determining direct responsibility for the death, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) determined that there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against the arresting officers.” (1)  This case revolved around White’s detailed assertions, firstly in March 2009 to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), secondly under oath the inquest in July 2012, that he left the south London custody suite to check on Bro. Sean in the back of the police van.  These assertions were later contradicted by CCTV evidence. (2)

In spite of the outcome, the trial represented the latest in a series of legal landmarks for the Sean Rigg case.  Not only was it the first-time criminal charges for perjury have been bought against a serving police officer following a death in police custody, it was also the first ever use of the Victim’s Right of Review to change an original CPS not to prosecute a police officer.  (3)

The CPS’ own charging standard, based on section 1{1} of the Perjury Act 1911, determines that perjury is committed when:

·        a lawfully sworn witness or interpreter

·        in judicial proceedings

·        wilfully makes a false statement

·        which he knows to be false or does not believe to be true, and

·        which is material in the proceedings.

The offence is triable only on indictment and carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment and/or a fine. (4)

To all intents and purposes this appeared to be the archetypal ‘open and shut case’ given the proven falsity of the officer’s statements.  That his defence that, he actually believed that he had checked on Bro. Sean and was “shell-shocked” when confronted with the truth, actually swayed the jury, left the family “devastated.”  As Bro. Sean’s older Sister Marcia shared:

“The jury’s verdict was a surprise to me and my family, but I will continue to fight for full accountability for those officers who were on duty at Brixton Police Station. That a custody sergeant can give false evidence in connection with a death in custody, something he accepts he did, is a shocking state of affairs. I await the MPS decision on disciplinary charges on this issue.

The fact that Sgt White’s defence rested on the failure of the IPCC to challenge his false evidence in March 2009 is a cause of significant public concern. The public is entitled to expect better from the police and those who are charged with ensuring police accountability. (5)

I will be raising with the CPS, and if necessary, Parliamentarians, the question of what ‘agreed facts’ go before criminal juries in relation to deaths in custody, given that the narrative conclusion of the inquest jury was excluded from the criminal trial.”

It would make sense if the “Parliamentarians” included Prime Minister Theresa May who, while Home Secretary, made very public statement seemingly empathising with the families of those died in police custody. (6)   She subsequently established an independent review into deaths and serious incidents in police custody, chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC. The review, scheduled for a “summer 2016” publication has yet to be released. (7).  Moreover, recorded responses to the verdict have thus far been as hard to find from Mrs May, as they have from her successor at the home office Amber Rudd – and their equivalents in the opposition for that matter.

In his seminal April 1963 civil rights tract, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, referencing “one of our distinguished jurists,” mused that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” (8)

It is a phrase that has maintained its tragic efficacy from that time to the present.

As indicated above, the Sean Rigg case has made legal history – and may yet do so again.  The weight of history would ordinarily have snuffed this process out, as it has done for many others, years ago, were it not for the resilience of the family and Sis. Marcia in particular.  However, on the rare occasions that the justice system fails to put such cases to bed it always seems able to rely on the good old British jury to save the day for the state, as the typified in the Azelle Rodney murder case and Mark Duggan inquest where juries turn logic on its head in pursuit of police acquittals. (9)

(1) Fiona Simpson (15/09/16) Sean Rigg: Police will not face trial over death of musician at Brixton police station. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/sean-rigg-police-will-not-face-trial-over-death-of-musician-after-being-restrained-at-brixton-police-a3346231.html.

(2) BBC Local News – London (31/10/16) Sean Rigg death: Brixton custody sergeant ‘clearly lied’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37822673.

(3) INQUEST (08/11/16) Police sergeant found ‘not guilty’ of perjury following the death of Sean Rigg in 2008. http://www.inquest.org.uk/media/pr/police-sergeant-found-not-guilty-of-perjury-following-the-death-of-sean-rig.

(4)  CPS (21/03/12) Public Justice Offences incorporating the Charging Standard. http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/public_justice_offences_incorporating_the_charging_standard/#a11.

(5)  INQUEST, Op. cit.

(6) Vikram Dodd (19/04/15) Theresa May admits justice system fails families over deaths in police custody. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/19/theresa-may-admits-justice-system-fails-families-deaths-police-custody-sean-rigg-olaseni-lewis.

(7) Home Office (26/02/16) Closed consultation – Independent review of deaths and serious incidents in police custody. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/independent-review-of-deaths-and-serious-incidents-in-police-custody.

(8) Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr (16/04/63) Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.

(9) Annette Mackin (07/07/15) Azelle Rodney cop walks free after trial. https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/40888/Azelle+Rodney+cop+walks+free+after+trial.

So tonight we ask the question:

Sean Rigg – Justice delayed, denied and demolished?

1.      What do the police have to do to be found guilty?

2.      Were you surprised by the acquittal?

3.      Must juries now be considered as part unjust state apparatus?

4.      If so, how can it be addressed?

5.      Given the Prime Minister’s previous pronouncements on this, why has the government’s response been so muted?  What is the opposition view?

6.      Where can the case go now?

7.      What can the community do collectively to address this issue?

Our very special guests:

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 African-Centred Guide To Excellence. 

Sis. Marcia Rigg: is the older sister of Bro. Sean Rigg who died in Brixton Police station on 21/08/2008.  Sis. Marcia has led the campaign to get justice for her brother, compelling her to give up her 20-year career as a legal PA in the City, as leading the campaign “has been like a full-time job.”  Although the campaign is ongoing it has scored some significant legal victories against the state.  Sis. Marcia is the current Chair of the United Friends and Families Campaign (UFFC), a coalition of those affected by deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody.

Show #200: Rosemary Campbell-Stephens Lecture Series – What education strategies are there for educators? 05/11/18

For Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan’s 200^th show on Galaxy Radio, we present the second of three mini-lectures within the context of education and nation-building delivered by renowned education consultant Sis. Rosemary Campbell-Stephens. After focusing on strategies for parents and young people (https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/rosemary-campbell-stephens-lecture-series-pt-1-education-strategies-for-parents-young-people/), we turn our attention to educators.

The kinds of issues facing our children in the schools are well documented. (1) However, until fairly recently the plight of Afrikan teachers often flew under the radar. “Inherent racism,” said to be “hiding in plain sight,” is marginalising teachers to the extent that they are leaving the profession. (2)

The deficit created means that to attain proportional representation across all cultures there would need to be”51,132 more primary school teachers and 14,429 more secondary teachers.” (3)

So entering the profession could be considered an onerous undertaking. Moreover, with independent Black schools and home-schooling only catering for a fraction of our children, a people acting strategically within the context of nation-building ought to have an approach to addressing the needs of the 550,000 Afrikan children within the state school system. (4)

So it is within this context that Sis. Rosemary Campbell-Stephens offers the following strategies for educators that can be used both as a self-assessment/evaluation tool for existing teachers and preparatory guidance for potential educators.

“Strategies for Educators

What they didn’t teach you in teacher training

The first thing to say about being an educator, whether you chose the profession or as in many cases education chose you, you are in a blessed and honourable position as a teacher. Let no one rob you of your joy, the joy of teaching. So my thoughts are based on a love of teaching and those who teach, I count myself as part of the ranks.

One of the first questions for any educator who is serious about themselves to both ask and answer is what is my moral purpose as an educator? The second question, is how do I align my practice, with my values and purpose?

There are many great writers out there that provide sound advice on day to day strategies for teaching, please do read them; but before we delve into strategies for doing anything, we should be honest with ourselves about precisely what we are doing and why.

We all need to concern ourselves from time to time with the bigger questions of our time and profession and, irrespective of the stage that we are at in our careers, read more in order to avail ourselves of the knowledge and research that exists to continuously hone our craft and we also need to develop professional habits that enable us to be radical change agents, within and beyond our classrooms. There are great practical basic suggestions for the former, namely how to become a better teacher all over the internet and in text books, but the strategies that I will be sharing cover those areas that are generally not covered in general teacher training and are the professional habits that will enable educators to be great enablers and influencers in side and beyond their classrooms.

So while the strategies that I am about to share, are from an African perspective, particularly directed at conscious African educators, as part of a 3-part lecture series on education and nation building, these professional habits are certainly applicable to any conscious educators of conscience, irrespective of their background. Those who approach the calling of teaching as a moral imperative to, through education, empower, liberate and humanize, will hopefully find that the following habits resonates with what they know to be true and are already doing.

As in the previous lecture, the suggestions are just that, my suggestions, hewn out of 38-years of practice and action research in the field. It is certainly not an exhaustive list, but may add dimension and depth, or at least pause for thought to your existing practice.

1. Identify your purpose as an educator, beyond that which we can take for granted, given your title and job description as teacher or leader, what is your purpose?
2. Align your purpose, with your values and practice and collaborate with the like-minded.
3. Act with moral purpose.
4. Develop unambivalent racial pride, look to any other races of people on this planet, if you have forgotten how.
5. Connect with your community or the communities that you serve. Connect and seek to understand the realities of their lived experience, even if it is not one with which you or your family personally identify.
6. Engage with your students, especially emotionally, the heart sends more messages to the brain than the other way round, having significant effect on brain function. Your students are physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, ancestral and tribal human beings, as are you. Connect all aspects of who you are to all aspects of who they are, and can be. Stop focusing partially and sparingly on one tiny aspect of developing ‘intellect’ or managing behaviour.
7. Historian – the public schooling system of which you are a part has a history and is not a meritocracy, understand the system, what it was set up to do and how, only then can you determine your part in it, but be prepared to un-learn.
8. Activist – stand for something, speak up and out, be disruptive – a big shout out to the group of educators some of whom are dear friends and former colleagues, who challenged Hodder Education’s GCSE Sociology textbook’s authors at the start of the academic year 2018-2019, about the deeply disturbing racist stereotypes about Caribbean Families found casually there in, forcing the book to be removed from sale and the content to be reviewed. It is a small but important victory. By being alert, organised and prepared to act as a collective in the interests of our community, such educators continue a strong tradition of defending our children from the cultural genocide that is perpetrated, through an unchecked, immoral schooling system with an agenda for us as Africans, whether by default or design. There are times when we must resist, protest, act and require that when we speak truth to power, we are heard, this was one such time and there are many, many more to come.
9. Researcher & writer – do our own research, writing and in other ways documenting, unapologetically through your own lenses, in your communities interests’, in your own words.
10. Pedagogy – be the lead learner, discipline yourself to become steeped in honing your craft, and do not miss too many opportunities for your students to teach you something. Be ambitious about cracking some of the major pedagogical challenges facing many educators e.g. devising innovative ways to teach bodily kinaesthetic learners, academic concepts, this is but one example of a stubborn challenge yet unresolved.
11. Strategist – pick your battles, organise, plan and execute, leave no students behind.
12. Authentic – find your authentic voice as an Afrikan educator.
13. Do what matters most – in many classrooms/places of learning today that is about creating a safe space just for students to simply be on any given day.
14. Be present – we are living through very troubling times that have potentially grave implications for us as Afrikan people, but there is a lot of noise and deflections, sometimes the temptation is to just run and hide. Be aware, be conscious and be intentional about everything that you do and say.
15. Griots – never underestimate the power of story for engaging, motivating, empowering and passing on knowledge and wisdom to the current generation of students and the future generation of educators.
16. Teach your students how to learn, firstly about themselves, then to be curious about how they learn best and how to extend their range, so that they can transfer skills to different situations and have the confidence to move beyond their preferred learning style when required.
17. Create spaces and opportunities for students to learn specifically about what it is to be human, physically, emotionally, culturally, spiritually and intellectually, relate everything to life and being.
18. Be innovative – for goodness sake, have an original thought!
19. Creative – among other things create your own narratives about those you teach, who they are, what you as their teachers and they as your students are together capable of! Remove or block, and replace the deficit thinking and language that dominates the frontal lobes of the brain for both student and teacher and those who would attempt to measure and assess the potential magic that together you make.
20. Build your tribe, understand the importance of ancestry, identity and culture in the process.
21. Start from where students are at, but teach them how to be boundless intellectually and infinite beings.”

– Rosemary Campbell-Stephens

(1) Whitney Crenna-Jennings (21/12/17) ‘A black Caribbean FSM boy with SEND is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white British girl without SEND. Why?’ https://www.tes.com/news/black-caribbean-fsm-boy-send-168-times-more-likely-be-permanently-excluded-white-british-girl
(2) Rachael Pells (06/07/17) Black and minority teachers face ‘inherent racism’ in UK schools, report warns. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/bme-teachers-racism-uk-schools-black-minority-ethnic-education-nasuwt-runneymede-trust-a7827131.html; Lola Okolosie (07/07/17) Racism in schools isn’t just part of the grim past – it’s hiding in plain sight.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/07/racism-schools-bame-pupils-teachers; Hannah Al-Othman (14/04/17) Black Teachers Are Leaving The Profession Due To Racism. https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahalothman/black-teachers-say-they-are-quitting-their-jobs-because-of?utm_term=.vdqEZX7Bn#.emkqMLPpB
(3) Ade Onibada (29/11/15) Severe shortage of black teachers at all levels. http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/severe-shortage-black-teachers-all-levels
(4) Department for Education (28/06/18) Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2018. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/719226/Schools_Pupils_and_their_Characteristics_2018_Main_Text.pdfSo tonight we ask the question:

What education strategies are there for educators?

1. Are you a teacher, how do you sustain yourself in the profession?
2. What is the best way to prepare new teachers?
3. Can we devise a strategy that will target the half a million Afrikan pupils in UK schools?
4. In what way can teachers be part of a nation-building agenda?

Sis. Rosemary Campbell-Stephens: is a world-renowned Education Consultant with almost 40-years experience as an educator, who resides in Jamaica. Her previous roles in the include: Head Teacher, Visiting Fellow at Institute of Education, University of London, Associate at National College for School Leadership; Associate at Virtual Staff College, OFSTED inspector and Leadership Consultant at RMC Consultants (UK) and head of the National College for Educational Leadership (Jamaica).