What's on the mind

I'm really looking forward to the Easter break ( yummy Easter Eggs at the ready ) as I've been burning the candle a bit so it'll be nice to have a little ease in some areas. I hope to clear up the garden a little.. so may set aside two days for that, weather appealing..

As I sit here and write I'm able to think a little, well, quite lot really, and relax as I do so. My assignment has shifted focus.. again, so I'm now looking at a statement by Dubois and aspects of Pan Africanism. Simple as it sounds it's not really. It's fair to say that Pan African origins were located in the Diaspora, America and the West Indies, with the first seeds of African nationalism (ironically) planted by colonisers, with the creation of what's known as Liberia, but what's interesting is that the Pan Africanists could barely agree between themselves. Dubois couldn't stand Garvey, and visa versa. Garvey viewed Dubois as some kind of 'sell out puppet', and Dubois viewed Garvey as verging on the ridiculous, with a dubious and fanciful notion of going ( or facilitating the return of people)'back to Africa', show boating ( stealing his thunder) with fancy 'over the top' costumes. But Dubois couldn't deny( and didn't deny) Garvey's mass appeal.. and some have said he quietly envied Garvey's charisma.






So, unity?
Hardly.
(But I suspect they may have harboured a secret deep admiration for each other.. whether they realised it or not)

Dubois himself viewed the African 'natives' as.. somewhat incapable, and felt that the leadership should and would come from the black intelligentsia in the Diaspora, and suffice to say it did.
Nkrumah, student/supporter of Dubois, and many others, educated in the west, (some) sponsored in part by colonisers anyway, returned 'home' to either implement ( knowingly or unknowingly) European rule, with many cementing their position as black African 'compradors'. (True or untrue, there are those who viewed it that way)
But that didn't quite go according to plan either.( they were a rebellious lot :)
Cue .. a never ending season of coup d'états




It's funny really, when you get down to it
Power.

Pan Africanism at times suggests a kind of homogeneous Africa, yet at a time of racial segregation oppression exploitation and colonial rule, I guess it would have been impossible not to see these somewhat arbitrary binaries, and unite against a common 'bad guy' or girl, but ethnic (and class) divisions (socially constructed or not) will out.. and did out.

So, anyway.. over the break I'll be de constructing Dubois's well known proposition that.. .“the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”

Unless I change it again that is.






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I remember when I started this blog, I had thought I'd focus mainly on news and current affairs, but over time it's become somewhat more personal, like a journal (but not a journal). It's a space to clear the mind a bit, freeze frame a few documentaries of interest, 'off load' when needed, enjoy a tune or two. Fact is, the news is quite depressing at the moment so I tend to avoid it.. well not avoid it totally but not be consumed by it too much.

It's actually relatively easy to pull a few words together as I tend to be reading something or watching something ( master-chef included) so can 'blog away' in the pauses.. during the tea and biscuit breaks.. or before sleep descends.

Anyway..
On with the show for a bit..