#black history

[soberscientistlife]

africanarchives —Nanny also known as Queen Nanny was a Maroon leader in Jamaica during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Enslaved Africans who escaped & established independent settlements in the Americas were known as maroons.

—Nanny was a runaway slave from Western Africa who had been sold into slavery. It is usually assumed that she was born into the Ashanti tribe of modern-day Ghana.

—Nanny and her 4 brothers (all of whom went on to become Maroon leaders) were sold into slavery and eventually escaped to the highlands and jungles that still make up much of Jamaica. Nanny and one of her brothers, Quao, established Nanny Town in the Blue Mountains on the Eastern side of Jamaica.

—Nanny Town thrived because of its remote location in the highlands, far from European villages & difficult to attack. Nanny avoided attacking plantations and European towns, preferring instead to farm and trade with her neighbors in a civilized manner. She did, however, conduct multiple successful raids to free slaves trapped on plantations and her actions resulted in the emancipation of about 1,000 slaves during her lifetime.

—Nanny & the Windward Maroons flourished and multiplied during Nanny’s lifetime. The triumph of the Maroons threatened the British colonial authorities. Plantation owners demanded action from colonial officials after losing slaves and having their equipment and crops torched by Maroon raids.

—The Jamaican jungles were searched by hunting groups made up of British regular army soldiers, militias & mercenaries. Captain William Cuffee, often known as Captain Sambo, is said to have murdered Nanny in one of the war’s many brutal battles in 1733. The war lasted from 1720 to 1739, when a truce was declared; Cudjoe, one of Nanny’s brothers and a Maroon War leader, was the driving force behind the treaty.

—Following Nanny’s death, many Windward Maroons relocated to the more sparsely populated Western (or Leeward) part of the island. The British eventually seized Nanny Town and destroyed it in 1734.

[by-any-means-necessay]

[woobosco]

Afro Culture (My Culture)

@woobosco

[stephanos-spaceopera]

With vanilla extract being a meme, I wanted to share some black history of Edmond Albius a black slave who revolutionized vanilla pollination.

He used a technique he learned of pollinating melons to polinate the orchids to create the vanilla beans. Vanilla was rare and a luxury mainly due to only being able to be pollinated by its natural pollinator in Mexico.

unfortanely, he didnt receive any money for his discovery despite being called the main man who revolutionized pollination, he died in poverty...

everyone say thank you Edmond

[sharonhawkins]

Celebrating Black History Month First Black Women to win an Emmy in that Category

[blackexcellence]

February is here, and that can only mean one thing: it’s BlackExcellence365, back for our fifth year right here on Tumblr. This is a celebration of all things Black culture and history, and it’s not just for February—this is a community celebration every day of every week of the year. This year we will be highlighting Black artists. So join us each month, as we will be exploring Black creativity with a series of themes such as history, power and activism, and PRIDE. 

Introducing February’s theme: Black History 

If you are a Black artist or creative, join in, follow, and share your art related to Black History using the tag #BlackExcellence365. Let’s lean into our creativity and explore Black Excellence through art. Selected posts will be featured, gifted free blazes🔥, or given a spot on radar. 

Keep your eyes peeled each month for your chance to showcase your expressions of Black Excellence. You will be able to do so as we explore artists here and across Tumblr over on Meet The Artist, Artist Picks, and Artist Alley— it doesn’t matter whatever your discipline: music, writing, photography, dance, fashion, film, and anything in between. 

Welcome back to #BlackExcellence365 ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽!

[tygerland]

Full Moon, Haitian Rhythm (1931, oil on canvas, 30×24 in.) by African-American artist, William Edouard Scott.

[odinsblog]

“First season of LEVERAGE - so he's 21 years old - he shows me his watch designs. I'm expecting, y' know, celebrity strap branding or faces. No, it's engineering schematics of GEARS and shit. Pages of them. Even then, there were none so cool.” - John Rogers

[blackbackedjackal]

The Proud Family reboot went OFF 🔥

[soberscientistlife]

Breaking glass ceilings Black History Month Day 17

[spacewives-in-spacetime]

My art for BlackExcellence365

[ ID: Side profile of a WOC from the collarbone up with a black background. She's closing her eyes, her hair tied back ever so slightly, unnoticeable if you don't understand. There are two lights coming from the left and right, illuminating her skin. From the right, the colour of the light is neon purple, or a bright magenta. From the left, it's a neon blue or cyan. END ID ]

[mimi-0007]

[queerasfact]

Black History Month: Simon Nkoli

“I am black, and I am gay. I cannot separate the two parts of me into secondary and primary struggle. They will all be one struggle.”

Simon Nkoli was born in the late 1950s in the Black township of Soweto in South Africa. He grew up under apartheid, and first became involved with anti-apartheid activism as a student, despite negative reactions within the movement to his homosexuality.

In 1984, Simon was arrested along with 21 other men while protesting rent increases in the township of Delmas, a group which became known as the Delmas 22. While in prison awaiting trial, Simon was outed, and faced backlash from the rest of the group, many who feared that pulic knowledge of his sexuality would negatively impact the outcome of the trial. To the surprise of his co-accused, Simon received an outpouring of support from the international queer community, which in turn led to greater international support for the Delmas 22 and anti-apartheid work.

Simon was ultimately acquitted, and began work as a founding member of a new group, GLOW - the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of Witwatersrand - fighting for the rights of queer people in Johannesburg’s Black townships. Simon was diagnosed with HIV while in prison, and focussed especially on HIV/AIDS activism in Black communities. With GLOW, Simon went on to organise Johannesburg’s first Pride march in 1990.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s president, marking the end of apartheid. Simon met and negotiated with government officials to ensure the rights of gay and lesbian people would be enshrined in the country’s new constitution - the first country in the world to do so.

Learn more

Image: Simon wearing a shirt with a pink triangle which reads “No liberation without gay-lesbian liberation”, and a pin reading “Silence=Death”