Check out photos from the PBS series on "Africa."
Vast, startling, gorgeous, astounding in its diversity...Africa
is perhaps the most complex and intriguing continent on
earth. Yet how many Americans can claim a real understanding
of Africans, their cultures and how their lives are shaped
by the land they inhabit? Now, "Africa", the
first television series to explore the continent through
the eyes of Africans, illustrates the dynamic relationship
between Africa's human history, environment and culture.
The eight part series began on Sunday, September 9 and
will continue every Sunday through September and October.
The final episode on October 28 will begin at 7:30pm.
Narrated by actor Joe Morton, African explores, reveals
and illuminates what is arguably the planet's least understood
continent. Each of the eight hours of Africa combine the
natural history of a different African region with the
stories of contemporary inhabitants. In the Sahara Desert,
a young Tuareg boy embarks with his father and their camel
caravan on a perilous rite of passage. In Kenya, a Kikuyu
businesswoman working in Nairobi journeys to her ancestral
village to give birth so that her child may have of a
sense of place when he draws his first breath. And on
the Swahili Coast, the members of an amateur soccer team
spearfish to raise the funds they need to compete in the
Tanzanian Islands Football League finals. These are just
a few of the stories that take viewers from the Rift Valley
to the deserts of the north, from the threatened rainforests
of Cameroon to rugged Ethiopia, from the harsh Sahel to
the Swahili coast and finally to rapidly changing South
Africa.
---From Cynthia McKinney ---
According to Rep. Cynthia McKinney, "The walkout
of the United States Government was supposed to weaken
the resolve of the participants in the third United
Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), begun
August 31 and ending September 7 in Durban, South Africa.
It hasn't. In fact, U.S. behavior during the WCAR, has
been so obnoxious and so transparent that it has served
to strengthen the bonds between the world's minorities,
in particular, African Americans and Africans, in a
way that could never have been anticipated by the current
Administration. As we look to Durban today, we see that
the world's minorities have gathered in an unprecedented
effort to stand together with one intent in mind: to
lay their issues before an international audience. Although
the immediate work of the US delegation was to try to
satisfy African concerns about colonialism while sidestepping
African and African American concerns about the slave
trade, an apology, and reparations. The US plan to mollify
the Africans at the expense of the African Americans
backfired as these two groups have unified in an effort
to push the issues of reparations and slavery forward
even beyond WCAR. In addition, seven Members of the
US Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), led by CBC Chairwoman
Eddie Bernice Johnson, dissented from the position of
the US delegation by adopting the platform of African
American non-governmental organizations participating
in the WCAR. We will continue to stand firm with our
brothers and sisters on the Continent. Any effort to
project division is not true. In fact, the only thing
that divides us from our brothers on the Continent is
the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and we're together on
the need for an apology and reparations for this crime
against humanity. While in Durban, the members of the
Congressional Black Caucus announced they are discussing
the possibility of holding their own "Conference
Against Racism in the United States in 2003."
----Boston: Black Ministerial Alliance
and Ten Point Coalition press Congress, President---Over
100 ministers from across Boston today are calling on
President Bush and the Massachusetts congressional delegation
to support sanctions on oil companies fueling slave
raids against Black African villages in Sudan. The ministers
will hold a noon press conference at People's Baptist
Church (134 Camden Street in Roxbury), immediately following
a Black Ministerial Alliance meeting where two ministers
will present on their recent rescue mission in southern
Sudan. Rev. Ray Hammond, Chairman of the Boston Ten
Point Coalition, who helped redeem over 6,700 Sudanese
slaves in July, announced that Boston ministers were
now taking their anti-slavery activism to a new level.
"Boston is the historic center of the abolitionist
movement, and for years the Black Ministerial Alliance
and the Ten Point Coalition have been working on contemporary
slavery in Sudan," he said. "Some of us have
seen firsthand the destruction fueled by Western oil
companies in Sudan, and the suffering of enslaved women
and children. Boston ministers understand that we have
a responsibility to be a voice for the voiceless."
Hammond noted that ministers were committed to seeing
oil companies partnering with the Sudanese regime banned
from American stock exchanges. "Sanctions crippled
apartheid in South Africa," said Hammond. "Today,
they will prevent oil money from enriching a government
responsible for slavery, gang rape, forced conversion,
and school bombings. Americans do not want their money
funding slave raids." For more information, contact
the Rev. Ray Hammond, 617-524-7900 or contact Jesse
Sage via email: sage@iabolish.com
---Atlanta: United States Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce---
During its 22nd Annual Convention and Business Expo,
the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will provide one-on-one
access to over 200 exhibitors from Fortune 500 companies
seeking to fulfill minority business opportunities and
jobs. In response to an increasing demand for Hispanics
and minorities as business suppliers and employees to
Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, the U.S.
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) will hold a FREE
two-day Business Expo, highlighting over 200 national
and international enterprises as well as the government
sector. The event will be held at the Georgia World
Congress Center, 285 International Boulevard, NW, in
downtown Atlanta, on September 21 from 12 noon to 5
p.m. and September 22 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Procurement
Pavilion and Workforce Diversity Pavilion, as part of
USHCC's 22nd Annual Convention and Business Expo. "We
urge existing and potential Hispanic and minority business
owners and those seeking employment to come to this
important Business Expo," said George Herrera,
President and Chief Executive Officer, USHCC. "This
FREE Expo presents opportunities to form relationships
for present and future business growth as well as professional
growth. So come and expand your horizons." The
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce represents the interests
of more than 1.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in
the United States and Puerto Rico, which earn more than
$200 billion annually. For more information, call Monica
Saenz 202-842-1212.
---New York: National African American
Insurance Association to host reception---The
National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA)
will hold a reception and information exchange on Thursday,
September 20 from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm at the MONY Group
building located at 1740 Broadway (12th floor) in New
York City. The reception will follow the organization's
annual business meeting and expects to draw insurance
industry representatives from across the country. Admission
to the event is complimentary and open to the business
community, but an RSVP and entry ticket is necessary
to attend. For more information, contact Debert Cook
at (212) 571-6559, ext. 11 or 13 or via email: debertcook@aol.com.
---Los Angeles: "West Coast
Black Music Festival"---
Each year brings something new at the Los Angeles Black
Business Expo & Trade Show and this year is no different.
Among the additions at this year's 13th annual event
is the West Coast Black Music Festival, celebrating
the history and influence of musical forms from African
chants and tribal music to Negro folk songs, ragtime,
gospel, reggae, jazz, boogie woogie, R&B, hip-hop
and much more. The three-day event will be featured
at the Expo Sept. 21-23 at the Los Angeles Convention
Center, and will also present an ongoing special exhibit
celebrating the life of Louis Armstrong, born August
4, 1901. The music festival will be held in the same
convention space as the Expo -- in Tom Bradley Hall
-- on a main stage before 4,000 seats surrounded by
700 vendor booths and 13 pavilions (health, automotive,
travel, cyberspace, youth activities, black cuisine,
etc.) The Expo is expected to draw more than 70,000
people over the three-day weekend. For more information,
contact Isidra Person-Lynn via email: thePRPerson@aol.com
---Washginton, D.C: Howard University
presents---
Howard University's Department of Theatre Arts presents
the Susan Smith Blackburn prize-winning play, BEFORE
IT HITS HOME, written by Cheryl L. West and directed
by Mark Jolin. BEFORE IT HITS HOME will be presented
in the Environmental Theatre Space [ETS], September
26 - 29, October 2 - 6, 2001 at 7:30 p.m., October 5
at 9:30 a.m. and October 6 at 2:30 p.m. The play is
a compassionate, but unflinching look at the effect
of AIDS on the African-American family as well as the
perception of homosexuality in the larger African-American
community. When Wendal Bailey, a young handsome jazz
musician, stricken with AIDS returns home to regain
his strength and find comfort, he is forced to confront
his own mortality along with the fears and bigotry of
his own family. This production features Howard University
students and alumni, Professors Denise J. Hart and Charles
A. Coward. For more information, contact, Denise D.
Saunders, (202) 806-5462.
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