Originally Posted by sargaco

Years ago, Black womanhood was caricatured in the media by the big fat black mammie types, only fit to take care of their white charges or cook in the kitchens. Later, it changed to the troubled drug addicted singer type. Nowadays, the caricature of Black womanhood is perceived through the media as a wig/weave wearing loose immoral being. The caricature has not changed much from the earlier one of half naked savage exposing her breasts and shaking her rear end, only now her grass skirt has been replaced by a bikini or a skin tight mini dress, and on her head she wears a weave. She is seen happy and contented, just to be part of a harem, bumping and grinding in cars or shaking her stuff around enjoying the delights of revelry.

This loose, immoral, exotic, and hedonistic Black woman is the type that is portrayed to us on a daily basis (in the video's) and is one which most of our men also buy into because they themselves have been conditioned to think on a superficial level; to think that flitting from woman to woman is the source of happiness, that the body beautiful is everything. Women also buy into this. A man's morals don't come into it so long as he looks good or he can 'do it right'. But they soon realise that it is the strength of a person's character is the prerequisite to happiness. We have been conditioned and therefore, we accept the superficial nature of people, relationships, and appearance.

A few days ago I was out shopping and ther was a little child, no older that 9 or 10 shopping with her mother. Some 'bwoy' not much older than herself was trying to 'check'her' not once or twice, telling her that he likes her and isn't she interested. The girl just blanked him, the mother did nothing to intervene and just carried on buying her shoes.

The point is, rather than thinking about an education or being a child, he, at the age of ten is already displaying a preditor's mentality. It does not take much stretch of the imagination to see where he will be in a few years time.
On another day, I saw three girls, one no older that 14 with a big belly. Once again, her education has stopped and what can she possibly give to a child in terms of guidance or economic stability?

I have a teenage daughter and I do not allow her to watch programmes that degrade a woman's sexuality because too much media exposure to those images can make her take in the negativity of Afrikan womanhood.

If that is what is presented to us, as to who we are, then we take it in, albeit, unconsciously and act it out. I also warn her against the type of men that have no substance to their character, other than the worship of their own phalluses and who see women as potential worshipers of that phallus, only to be discarded when they have had their pleasure. I come across such men every day. Outwardly, they may be attractive looking but inside, they are lethal, they drag you down psychologically, and some of them are potential death traps, talking 'bout 'Baby I like you' as it that is supposed to flatter me, when in reality, all they want to do is to make me another in a long line of conquests.

In a round about way, what I am saying is that by not seeing Afrikan womanhood in any other terms that the sexual energiser bunny mode, we lose sight as to what true womanhood is all about and we certainly lose sight as to what true masculinity is about. Because the one that is being offered up to us, and which many men perpetuate and we accept, is the rakish philandering type: the Mandingo's the Lothario's,and Casanova's. Yeah, I know all you players, know where I am coming from. By not taking responsibility for our own identities, and by being complacent, by allowing ourselves to be swayed by media hype, a lack of community, and selfishness, our OWN moral degeneration is leading to annihilation. Remember, we are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Therefore, how we define ourselves as Afrikan women should not be dictated by the white media or brain washed irresponsible men folk, but by our own dignity, self-respect and self worth.

Originally Posted by Breadfruit

Don't you sometimes wonder what European success really means to the human soul? Why do Africans look for soo much from a society and culture that turns children from this...............



Into international, grammy winning success stories like this........


Are the rich and powerful, any less soul - less than poor Ms Winehouse? Do the elite of this culture have any positive profound spiritual connection to that which is good for themselves, beneficial for their family, those close to them and humanity as a whole??

When we let people like this drug abuser

govern our societies, dictate how we live, make their self serving laws, what, what really has been and will continue to be the end result???

Deep thoughts over.



If Africans are calling each other nigga today, why should we be surprised of the fact that white people have never ever stopped?? If you buy music, buy Black.

Originally Posted by Black Lion

Clegg's wrong on Zimbabwe

Calling for military action risks dividing Africa just as its leaders appear to be uniting against Mugabe

Naturally despair is the primary emotion that will greet the decision by Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of the presidential run-off against Robert Mugabe, which was due to have been held this Friday. With the election gone and no indication about when, or if, regime change will happen, the call for military action could develop from a low rumble into a roar. Such talk risks dividing Africa at the very time when its leaders, finally, appeared to be uniting against Mugabe.

Given its colonial past, Britain has a responsibility to think harder than most before talking up the prospect of war. Sadly, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg foolishly talked of military action on yesterday's BBC Politics Show, and also wants to ban remittances sent by people in Britain to their relatives in Zimbabwe. On both counts Clegg is profoundly and dangerously wrong.

To be fair to Clegg, he raised military action in the same breath as declaring that it would be "impractical", a clear case of having his cake and eating it. I want regime change in Zimbabwe as much as anybody. Half my family is from Zimbabwe and I have visited several times. In fact, a few months ago a cousin of mine was arrested and tortured for a week before being dumped, dazed and injured, in the bush. His crime was simply living in a Harare neighborhood that was viewed as sympathetic to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

With the economy having all but collapsed, many Zimbabweans depend on remittances from the estimated half a million Zimbabweans living in Britain. Without this vital lifeline, people will die. Clegg has clearly not done his homework on the issue of remittances. He claimed that remittances help fund Mugabe's regime. That is simply not the case. The cash goes straight from the sender to the receiver, with an international money transfer company (mostly Western Union) taking a cut. There is no evidence that cash sent to help relatives is being passed on to the government. Clegg seemed to suggest that remittances could be banned because Zimbabwe's rate of inflation meant that money sent quickly lost its value. Again, the Lib Dem leader is speaking out of ignorance. Most, if not all, transfers are in American dollars. His talk of a "petrol embargo" will surely be met with hollow laughter in the streets of Zimbabwe where petrol has been running increasingly scarce for the past two or three years. Zimbabwe's long-suffering population has already adapted to the shortage of petrol and high transport costs – they cycle and walk. Their answer to rampant inflation and collapsing economy is to trade in the black market. As a Lib Dem member, I am ashamed that Clegg has indulged in political opportunism over Zimbabwe, and appalled that he has embarked on this journey in such an amateurish way.

Now that Tsvangirai has abandoned the election, it is vital that the gathering momentum among African leaders continues. The leaders of Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa's Jacob Zuma have all joined the chorus of international opinion declaring that the presidential elections would not be free and fair. After years of procrastination for a host of self-interested reasons, this development carries with it genuine hope that Mugabe will at last read the writing on the wall. The west can spend its time comparing Mugabe to Hitler, but the real answer is African solutions to African problems.

British actions, from tying a compensation package for white farmers to "good governance" clauses in the Abuja Accord, to the imposing of so-called smart sanctions, has merely stiffened the resolve of Mugabe to resist. The diplomacy of Thabo Mbeki – wanting a graceful exit for Mugabe alongside a succession of a modern leader from within Zanu-PF ranks – has often been misinterpreted as Mbeki standing by a tyrant while failing to use the power South Africa wields to force change. The belief that the west can simply apply pressure on South Africa to turn off the lights of its neighbour, as Clegg suggests, does not recognise the dynamics of the region. Over the past decade Britain should by now realise that might and muscle will not bring Zimbabwe any closer to a solution. It simply feeds the Mugabe propaganda machine and isolates the very people who can bring their influence to bear – other African leaders. If Britain has a hung parliament at the next election and Clegg is offered a place in the cabinet I, for one, will pray he does not become foreign secretary.

Originally Posted by Dada

]I have issues with Mugabe.

Initially about five years ago, while in Zambia looking at all those currency sellers on the road side, ignoring Zimbabwe currency and hearing the stories of "Land Grab" my sympathies lay firmly on being anti Mugabe.

I don't know the in's and outs of the Country, but the issue of Land distribution was always so from the time Ceil Rhodes and his pals forged and forced Traditional illiterate rulers to sign over their lands to the British.

The Lancaster House agreement acknowledged this unfair distribution of Land and worked with Mugabe to resolve the issue. However Britain stopped the compensation to Zimbabwe around 1997 and this was instrumental to this Policy of "Land Grab" .

The spectere of White Farmers ( of which I had the pleasure of speaking with back then) being forced off the land because , Claire Short renaged (sp) on previous Governments pledges with the " We don't do Colonialism" forced Mugabe to be active in this area. This action brought about Labours policy of sanctions. And in turn economic hardship.

I am not a great fan of Democracy, and I do remember a White Zambian telling me that the reason African Leaders hold on to Power, more so than Western ones, is that in Africa the notion of a Traditional Ruler giving up Power within a few years is not part of our Culture. His views I might stress.

This leads me to explore the imposition of Parlimentary Democracy thrusted on newly African States at the time of "Independance" a sort of a One size Democracy fits all. Hence the problems.

Democracy, as Christianity used to be, is now the so called benchmark of Civilised society. But it is largely the product of an Industrialised nation. Also it playes beautifully in the hands of Neo Colonialists. In so far that if the main party in Power doe'snt abide by what the West tells it, then it will sponsor the opporisition party to change it, hopefully without much blood shed. The problems was that African countries were and are too underdeveloped to have Democracy policies that would be subject to change every 5 years, i.e Nigeria and the existing Presidents policy towards the Chinese proposed 8 Billion Dollar contract signed by the last Adminstration but suspended through this one!

This was a theory of mine until this year, when I was told by a Power that be prior to the election that they were actually going to do that, by supporting Makoni. As mentioned I did not pay any attention to this information until the aftermath of this election.

Let's look at the moral indignation of the West towards Mugabe and constrast it with the Machinations of Simon Mann and Mark Thatchers "Democractic" bid for Power over EQ!!!!! Fcuking Hypocrites

Mugabe's sin is that he is his own man, He is an anti-Colonialist of the old school, his 84, imagine what life was like back in 1944 for him? How was his people regarded by the ruling elite back then?

It is right that African nations under the umbrellia (sp) of the African Union seek ways to resolve the crisis. But let's be in no doubt the Crisiss in my opinion started with Britain, back in 1997 breaking it's Lancaster House pledges to Zimbabwe on compensation and redistribution of Land.

I am very suspectious (sp) of this "opporisition" Leader. From my understanding Simon Mann and Thatcher also were going to bring one along if their coup was successful. In whose interests will such a leader really serve ?

I am happy to be informed and enlightened by others views on the matter.

Originally Posted by Toloane

what pisses me off about this whole "get Mugabe" episode is the loss among a lot of our less thoughtful brothers and sisters of the basic that it is not Mugabe they are after. it can not be Mugabe alone that is the matter here. it is CONTROL that is at issue. it is about getting rid of those people who are running things, so that another group of people can be brought in who will run things, but then on behalf of somebody else. this is at base a racial campaign to give the land and resources back to one racial group at the expense of another, period.

i listened to that Sarkozy person tell the world he is ready to take military action in Zim. funny how some short people can talk so tall. aren't these the same leaders struggling to hide from their own people the reality of mass graves in Iraq, and how the numbers of their casualties do not make any sense? they have now turned away from mention of other justification for waging that war, like bringing democracy and justice, to the rapidly increasing number of dead not dying in vain: from noble cause to the inculcation of vengeance feelings in the psyche of their own masses... kind of similar to instigating tit for tat killings during divide and conquer manipulations, but this time it is done against their own people, or, shall we say, their own people are driven into a frenzy of hate for foreigners who initially they were supposed to have gone out to save... forget the Taliban mirage. how cheap can a mature man become of tactic?

they cannot even reveal to their own people that those pictures of brave soldiers wandering macho like surrounded by perplexed peasants are photo ops, because western forces are barracks based, buttressed buffered fortressed and immovable, afraid of IED's and the like? sitting duck like that just check how fast they will move when disadvantage swings completely their way, and change tact too like shake hands with everybody, including the Taliban and that Al Quaida..

if the Sarkozy guy thinks Southern Africa is some Ivory Coast scenario, then he will find out the hard way just why the colonialists fled this part of the world en masse back then. i should actually say to these war mongering types "bring it on!" i personally am tired of this life where the devil pretends to be the good guy while behind the scenes he causes mayhem, succeeding to convince a lot of our people (60%) that their suffering is caused by something else. all of that deception gets out of the way when it is truly on.

getting that deception out of the way is what the main article of this post is basically warning against.

that ... shouldn't happen at a pro black website where we are supposed to be deciphering the wiles of the devil, not providing better cloaking material.

Originally Posted by Vubundada_Kandaba

You know this is really sad and it really infuriates me. You got some Heartless and Outright Evil people right here on BNV who condone the attacks and the killings of Opposition MDC Members solely because Mugabe is a their hero who stnads up to the West. So if Thousands of Africans are Killed, and millions more forced from their homes that were demolished to make way for a Chinese Development project so be it. Zimbabweans are forced to flee to South Africa where they face Xenophobic attacks and made to become beggers, and some BNV people see nothing wrong with that and they sleep very well at night, not to mention that they eat four meals a day in the UK and the USA plus refreshements, drinks, tea and biscuits on the side. So enjoy all these while it last and the shoe is not on you back.

These people who are reduced to beggers and beaten at Home in Zimbabwe and South Africa could have been our Mothers, Our Sisters, Brothers, and Fathers. Lucky Dube once said that "Not Every Black Man is my Brother", and it is here in BNV that it has been proven that some amongst us are not our Brothers and the only things we have in common is our skin color. The mayor of Harare had his wife abducted and murdered, just because he happens to be a member of the opposition. Now lets assume that the MDC Opposition was Misguided, Short Sighted and wrong on their policies, does that mean they deserve Death? Is there a law thats says a person who is misguided deserves to die?

Evil, just pure evil is what I have seen here on BNV. Pure Evilous souls here and we have nothing in common with these Evil people. Had we been in Africa some of those on BNV condoning the murders in Zimbabwe will have joined in to beat and murder fellow Africans, straight up without hesitation.

Originally Posted by Gmahogany777