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All gold everythang. #21stBirthday #PartTwo #DC #WeLit #veryyes (at Southwest, Washington, D.C.)

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Yes, yes, I’m mad late again....better late than never.

Picking up where I left off with the last update, I recently had the chance to spend a week in Senegal (Dakar/Goree), and I must say, above all things, I was disgusted.

Why disgusted, you may ask?

Well, here’s why:

As an African-American, we’re told our whole lives that Africa is not a place to be. We’re told not to visit Africa. We’re told not to associate with Africa. We’re told that Africa is nothing more than a wasteland full of poverty, war, disease, and let’s not forget those starving children. 

As you can tell from the above pictures, this is not the case.

From the moment I stepped off the plane into Dakar, as I was greeted by one of my friends & brought into the city, I never felt so much cordiality out of a city. Senegal is full of beautiful people, who treat any and everyone who visits like family. I’ve never met a group of people so loving and kind, who always smiled when they saw you (& didn’t mind that despite my five years of studying French, I still needed them to repeat what they said every now & again). The views there are breathtaking. I had the chance to visit Ile de Goree while I was there (Ile de Goree is an island off the coast of Dakar that is considered part of the city). It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. I also got to see the Monument of the African Renaissance, which was built by a Senegalese architect and is the largest monument on the continent.

....oh yeah, & I chowed DOWN while I was in Senegal. Yassa is my favorite dish.

But back to the point, I feel disgusted because, had I not been awakened to the corruption and racism of this world, I would have missed out on this wonderful opportunity. There was a certain point in time at which I wouldn’t dare to make such a trip, and it hurts to know that there are many African-Americans who are still conditioned to feel that way.

I feel disgusted that such a place of beautiful people, with no violence or hostility, could be labeled as disease-ridden, poverty-stricken savages.

I feel disgusted that an institution such as the one that I study at could be so adamant against me visiting such a beautiful place.

I feel disgusted that many black people will not be afforded the same opportunity that I was afforded: the opportunity to go back to my roots & see what the REAL Africa is all about.

Young black people: don’t ever let someone fill your mind with propaganda regarding your true homeland. Where you come is beautiful. Where you come from is nothing to be ashamed of. & if the opportunity to visit Africa comes your way: do. not. let. it. pass. you. by.

Stay woke.

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It’s trips like these that remind me that I’m always right where I should be....

It’s very hard for me, as someone who identifies as black, to come to the Motherland, only to suffer the same form of institutional white supremacy that I experience in the States. At times, it greatly hinders my ability to feel at home, and to feel that I’m enjoying my time here.

This past weekend, however, I was able to spend the weekend at Zawiya Ahansal (a zawiya is an Islamic monastery). There was no Internet, no hustle & bustle of a city, and very limited electricity.

I’ve always wanted to do a detox like that. Being a young adult of the 21st century, I consume more media that what may be considered healthy. I couldn’t have found a more breathtaking place than Zawiya Ahansal to do this at. Although I didn’t completely escape the negativity of the world, to be able to wander alone & admire all the rich scenery the village had to offer was rewarding beyond explanation. From the rivers, to the mountains, to the beautiful people, Zawiya Ahansal definitely allowed me to re-center during a time at which I was feeling very frustrated with the ways of the world. I feel much more in tune with my higher self as a result. If you ever visit Morocco, I highly recommend coming here. (There are hotels there ;) ).

I am so glad that I was able to make this trip. Because of it, I am in a much better state of mind for my trip to West Africa. I will be boarding the plane for Senegal tomorrow. I can’t wait to finally be “home.” Stay woke.

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Alright....I was hoping to update more often, but responsibilities call.....

So far, Morocco has been beautiful. I’ve visited several historic & scenic sites, including Moulay Idriss and Volubilis (pictured above), eaten Moroccan food (& gotten sick from it), met many friendly Moroccans and, of course, practiced my Arabic & French skills. I stay in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, in a neighborhood named “L’Ocean” which is, you guessed it, right by the ocean! That definitely comes in handy when I need to unwind.

However, as wonderful as Morocco has been, there is one thing that the country hasn’t supplied me with: a sense of belonging. Although I have North African roots, I also have West African roots, and as a person who identifies as Black American, I identify more with “Black” people. When I first arrived in Morocco, one of the first things that amazed me was the very high number of Sub-Saharan African immigrants. Now, one would think that that would make me excited; however, it is something that disheartened me, as almost every Sub-Saharan African I’ve seen, I’ve seen out on the street, either selling products on the street, or begging for change. Seeing this confirmed my prediction that Morocco isn’t the utopia that many of my friends described it to be. It felt very much like America: subtle racism that people try to brush off as just a “class” issue. I plan to do a research project on Sub-Saharan African immigrants for one of my classes this semester, so hopefully I can gain more insight on this issue.

Anyways, to remedy my situation of not having a feeling of belonging, I plan on visiting Senegal next month (the original plan was to go to Nigeria, but the way these visa regulations are set up.....). It’s my first time traveling to Sub-Saharan Africa, and i can’t wait to be in a country dominated & run by black people. I know it will be both a rewarding and a moving experience for me.

Peace.

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Resurrected.

I haven’t used this thing in years. I guess I’ve evolved out of it. As one passes through different phases of his life, he sometimes needs to change channels & outlets to effectively communicate what he’s feeling at the moment (too deep?). Anyways,....now, however, I want to return to this site to document my new adventure: THE MOTHERLAND. I will be spending the rest of 2015 here continuing my Arabic studies. Stationed in Morocco; however, I plan on making trips to West Africa during my time here. This really is a dream come true. I didn’t think I would be afforded an opportunity like this so soon. I project exponential spiritual growth in the coming months. Stay woke.

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“What Being African Means to Me” is the photo component to Africa Week—a brand new initiative started by the African Students’ Organization at American University launched to celebrate the many cultures of Africa while simultaneously tackling the many issues concerning the continent, its people, and the members of its Diaspora. The series was inspired by Ithaca College’s photo campaign, whose purpose was to dismantle common myths and stereotypes about Africa and its people. To add their own twist, each executive board member, as well as general members of the organization, describe what it means to be an African in their photos. Each person’s photo is layered with the flag of his/her country of origin and/or ancestry.

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This. Is. The. Return. To. Life. #Ankh #Haircut #Masr #Egypt #Kemet

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#shine #nofilter

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& there's power in this #melanin. #GodSupremacy #Blackness #Divinity #nofilter

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#IfTheyGunnedMeDown #WhichPictureWouldTheyUse In a cap & gown next to a proud grandmother. OR... Out in the streets of New York with my black friends... *cough* excuse me... Gang members, with a "hood" chain on & "hood" clothing. Oh, but racism in the media doesn't exist... Stay woke.

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modern upper Egyptians

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Always and forever in sha Allah! #Egypt #love #habibi

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#TBT - Photoshoot for Bilal's "A Love Surreal" T-Shirt Promo

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Who is Black? Striking Images of the World’s Dark-Skinned People Inaccurately Considered Non-Black

1. “Black Arab” may be a confusing concept to many people in the West, where Arabs are classified as Caucasian people. However, all uses of the word “Arab” prior to the rise of Islam in the 7th century refer specifically to people belonging to the Bedouin ethnic group.  After that and leading up to the 13th century,  people with no Bedouin heritage began to refer to themselves as Arabs.

Today, there are still many “Black Arab” ethnic groups, such as the Tuaregs and Nubians of North Africa to the Mahra of Southern Arabia, who are still in existence, and whose presence in the the “Middle East” predates the coming of the paler-skinned Asiatics. Today’s Arabs are a mixture of these groups, with those of darker-skin facing the typical discrimination and oppression seen by the darker peoples of the world.

Ibn Mandour, of the 13th century, writes in his well-known Arabic lexicon Lisan Al Arab, “He (Al Fadl ibn Al Abbas),  ’I am pure’ because the color of the Arabs is dark”. Mandour further describes the pure Arabs by saying, “Lank hair is the kind of hair that most non-Arab Persians and Romans have while kinky hair is the kind of hair that most Arabs have.”

2.Blacks Of Latin America

According to some very moderate estimates, between 1502 and 1866, 11.2 million Africans survived the Middle Passage and were forced from slave ships into servitude in the Americas. Of those 11.2 million, only 450,000 came to the United States. The rest of the enslaved Africans who survived the journey were taken to the Caribbean, Latin America and South America. The vast majority of them were brought to Brazil, as a result the country has one of the  largest population of African descendants outside of Africa, second to India.

Today many Black people in Latin America are proudly claiming their African identity and fighting to no longer be invisible in the countries they currently inhabit.  They have challenged their oppression and marginalization, all while observing their culture being absorbed into mainstream Latin American life, many times without proper credit to it’s true origins.

The total population of the Americas is approximately 910,720,588 people. Adding the population of Blacks in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and South America would roughly total 183,708,067 or 20.2 % of the population in the Western Hemisphere – a modest estimation considering that Blacks are not counted separately in some countries, counted as multiracial in others, and undercounted in all.

3.The Indigenous Blacks Of  East Asia

Before waves of Han migrations around 1600 B.C., the original inhabitants of China were Black Africans who arrived there about 100,000 years ago and dominated the region until a few thousand years ago.  They were followed by the Aboriginal ethnic groups, who are part of the Austronesian people who have come from the Malay Archipelago 6,000 years ago.  Pejoratively called Nigritos , or Little Black People, by the Spanish invaders who observed them in Southeast Asia, these Africans were still living in China during the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1911).

At about 35,000 B.C. a group of African Chinese, who became known as the Jomon entered Japan, they became the first humans to inhabit the Japanese Islands. Later, another group; now known as the Ainu, followed. Genetically they’re more similar to dark-skinned groups found in Southeast Asia than the Chinese, Japanese or Koreans.

The original Chinese have been wiped out and the Ainu have  been subjugated to grave injustices by their lighter-skinned countrymen. Although the true number of Ainu descendants living in Japan is unknown,  the official numbers suggest there are only about 25,000 descendants of the Ainu remaining, while the unofficial number claims upward of 200,000.

4.Black People of Southeast Asia

The Black people who are labeled “The Negritos,” are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia, remnants of the earliest populations from the Out of Africa migration.  The term refers to the current populations which include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and also the Aeta, Agta, Ati  and 30 other peoples of the Philippines.

They are believed to be the descendants of the indigenous negroid populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Austronesian peoples who later entered Southeast Asia.

Genetically these people are some of the most distantly related human beings to Black Africans on earth, and most related to Southeast Asians. Some people attempt to use this fact to remove them from the Black race, however; a more reasonable conclusion acknowledges it as a testament to to the broad range of diversity among the Black people of the world.

5.Black People of India

As you may know when Black people left Africa, India was one of the first place they came to and settled. With the second largest population in the world, and a significant percentage of those people having African heritage, some scholars say India to this day has the largest Black population of any country in the world.

Ancestral South Indians who originally inhabited much of the subcontinent some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago actually looked African. The proof of this lies off the East coast of India, on the Andaman and Nicobar islands.  The Andaman islands lie in the middle of Bay of Bengal east of India.

After the invasions of India by lighter-skinned Eurasians, Indians, particularly in the north, have become more of a mixed people, among which darker-skinned people, the Untouchables, have been bound to a life of servitude and degradation via the Hindu caste system.

However, despite thousands of years of killing and miscegenation,  some of the original Blacks have survived in pockets around India and nearby islands.

Another African group, the Siddis, an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan, were brought to the Indian subcontinent, begining in the 7th century, as a result of the transatlantic slave trade by Arab and Portuguese slave traders.

6.The Khoisan of South Africa

The Khoisans refers to two groups of peoples of Southern Africa, who share similar physical and linguistic characteristics. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the hunter-gatherer San and the pastoral Khoikhoi, although neither group purely live those lifestyles today.

The Khoikhoi were previous belittled with the label of Hottentots. Likewise, the Sans are often referenced by the pejorative term “Bushmen.” Both are often called the derogatory term pygmy still till this day.

As one of Africa’s oldest cultural groups, the Khoisan are also the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, where they have lived for at least 20,000 years. Genetic evidence suggests they are also one of the oldest peoples in the world and genetically the closest surviving people to the original Homo sapien “core” from which all human-beings emerged.

They are generally small in stature, with very tightly curled hair, and with light yellowish skin, which wrinkles very early in life. Their facial features show that what historically has been categorized as Mongoloid is actually Africanoid.  Despite the obvious, under the apartheid system in SA, they were classified as “Colored” instead of Black.

7.Indigenous Australians and People of Oceania

By now it’s evident that Africa is not the only place on earth that has indigenous Black people.  Australia and the islands of Oceania also have indigenous Black people that populated the area. Oceania is a large region of the world that includes thousands of Pacific islands, including the areas of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.

The “First” Out of Africa migration, circa 60,000 B.C, saw Blacks with straight hair, taking a route along the coast of Asia, and then “Island hopping” across the Indian Ocean to  New Guinea around 50,000 BC, continuing the southward expansion into Australia and Tasmania around 40,000 BC.

The ancestral Austronesian peoples are believed to have arrived considerably later, approximately 3,500 years ago, as part of a gradual seafaring migration from Southeast Asia, possibly originating in Taiwan. These Austronesian-speaking peoples ranged in skin color from light to dark. Some mixed with the black skinned Papuan speaking aborigines to give rise to the Melanesian people that later spread eastward all the way to the Fiji Islands and even to Hawaii.

Despite having their numbers decreased due to miscegenation with and extermination by various Asians and European invaders, a significant Black population still exists in Oceania. Unsurprisingly, however;  are still being classified outside of the Black race.

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I actually cannot.