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Kunjufu
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Posted: Saturday December 20th, 2003 18:19 |
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| Forum: Please feel free to provide good book recommendations of Black, history or Concious books that you think will be a good and informative read..to newbies to this subject.. Last edited on Saturday December 20th, 2003 18:20 by Kunjufu
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Sage
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Posted: Saturday December 20th, 2003 21:37 |
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I would recommend....
The Autobiography Of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and the late Alex Haley
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Posted: Saturday December 20th, 2003 21:50 |
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Here is another one I think is a good read...
Before the Mayflower...A History of Black America
by Lerone Bennett
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Kunjufu
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Posted: Saturday December 20th, 2003 22:38 |
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Ashanti wrote: I would recommend....
The Autobiography Of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and the late Alex Haley
I would wholly concur with ashanti on this recommendation, I found it insightful, sad and at times very very funny..loved that book..
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chique
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Posted: Sunday December 21st, 2003 12:39 |
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Hmm I was very close to buying this book by recommendation of a friend so now I think it will have to bo done. Thankyou Ashanti and Kunjufu  .
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Prince Hakeem
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Posted: Sunday December 21st, 2003 17:16 |
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You guys NEED to check out this book by Earl Ofari. Even though it's based on an African American perspective it still has a universal application. I've had this book in my possession for a few years now and even though it's based on the demonisation of brothas, I feel that black women especially will benefit from it. You can purchase this book from Amazon UK too.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684836572/qid=1071994316/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4456207-7948061?v=glance&s=books
p.s. - Isn't it interesting that whenever something is produced to counter stereotypes and uplift black people there's always some b**tard that goes out their way to trash it? Click on the link and read the first review.
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Posted: Sunday December 21st, 2003 21:58 |
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I cannot leave off this brother....
Doing What's Right: How to Fight for What You Believe--And Make a Difference
by Tavis Smiley
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Posted: Monday December 22nd, 2003 01:42 |
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May I recommend:
Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern, Edited by Ivan Van Sertima, New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.): Transaction Books, 1991, Eleventh Printing. ISBN: 0-87855-941-8 (paper).
Here follows a brief extract:
"Metallurgy
In 1978 anthropology professor, Peter Schmidt, and professor of engineering, Donald Avery, both of Brown University, announced to the world that, between 1,500-2,000 years ago, Africans living on the western shores of Lake Victoria, in Tanzania, had produced carbon steel.
The Africans had done this in pre-heated draft furnaces, a method that was technologically more sophisticated than any developed in Europe until the mid-19th century. "We have found," said Professor Schmidt, "a technological process in the African Iron Age which is exceedingly complex.... To be able to say that a technologically superior process developed in Africa more than 1,500 years ago overturns the popular and scholarly ideas that technological sophistication developed in Europe but not in Africa."
There were Africans still living (the Haya people, for example) who, although they no longer produced steel, remebered, down to the last identity of detail, the machine and the process their ancestors used and were able to reconstruct the furnace and carrry out a successful smelt. When Schmidt and Avery began excavating near Lake Victoria and dug up 13 Iron Age furnaces, they found that "the construction of the furnaces and the composition of the steel was essentially the same."
The temperature achieved in the blast furnace of the African steel-smelting machine was higher than any achieved in a European machine until modern times. It was roughly 1,800 deg. C, some 200 to 400 deg C higher than the highest achieved in European cold blast bloomeries. The record for Europe was in an experimental 2nd century Roman shaft furnace where scientists recorded a temperature in the combustion zone of 1,600 deg C.
The African superiority was due to the fact that they preheated the air blast by inserting blowpipes into the base of the furnace. This not only led to the extraordinarily high temperatures but also to greater fuel economy. This was important since, in the areas where Africans produced steel, there is evidence of a severe depletion of forest resources, demanding a fuel-saving technology.
The machine they devised and the resourceful way they made use of available materials, is in itself fascinating. For example, the pit they dug beneath the furnace was lined with mud made from a termite mound. The termite mound was an excellent choice since termites make their hills of materials that won't absorb water, bits of alumina and silica piled up grain by grain. The Africans also introduced a process in their smelting that was very original and in advance of their time, making steel through the formation of iron crystals rather than by "the sintering of solid particles" as in European smelting. This led Professor Avery to comment: "It's a very unique process that uses a large number of sophisticated techniques. This is really semi-conductor technology - the growing of crystals - not iron-smelting technology."
This technology was not confined to Lake Victoria. Further investigations showed that there was widespread distribution of Early Iron Age industrial sites in West Lake and neighboring areas, such as Rwanda in Uganda. The nature of the industry also indicates that these Africans lived in densely populated centers, with an organized, highly cooperative labor force."
Thank you.
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kwese
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Posted: Monday December 22nd, 2003 02:43 |
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I agree with Ashanti
Every black person/person of colour MUSTread this book:
ROOTS By Alex Haley......its an education
ALSO READ:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
another good recent book is Stupid White Men by Michael Moore. "shocking" is one of the many words i could use to describe this book.
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Posted: Monday December 22nd, 2003 05:54 |
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 Autobiography of Malcom X and must read by everyone. Well done Ashanti, beat us to the punch on that one..
Afro-American History By Malcom X
Enemies: The Clash of Races-Haki R Madhubuti[probably the best political writer and essayist of his generation].
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nuvoue
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Posted: Monday December 22nd, 2003 06:15 |
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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates
of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
MacArthur fellow and UCLA evolutionary biologist Diamond (The Third Chimpanzee, 1992, etc.) takes as his theme no less than the rise of human civilizations. On the whole this is an impressive achievement, with nods to the historians, anthropologists, and others who have laid the groundwork. Diamond tells us that the impetus for the book came from a native New Guinea friend, Yali, who asked him, ``Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?'' The long and short of it, says Diamond, is biogeography. It just so happened that 13,000 years ago, with the ending of the last Ice Age, there was an area of the world better endowed with the flora and fauna that would lead to the take-off toward civilization: that valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers we now call the Fertile Crescent. There were found the wild stocks that became domesticated crops of wheat and barley. Flax was available for the development of cloth. There was an abundance of large mammals that could be domesticated: sheep, goats, cattle. Once agriculture is born and animals domesticated, a kind of positive feedback drives the growth toward civilization. People settle down; food surpluses can be stored so population grows. And with it comes a division of labor, the rise of an elite class, the codification of rules, and language. It happened, too, in China, and later in Mesoamerica. But the New World was not nearly as abundant in the good stuff. And like Africa, it is oriented North and South, resulting in different climates, which make the diffusion of agriculture and animals problematic. While you have heard many of these arguments before, Diamond has brought them together convincingly. The prose is not brilliant and there are apologies and redundancies that we could do without. But a fair answer to Yali's question this surely is, and gratifyingly, it makes clear that race has nothing to do with who does or does not develop cargo.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.
............ very thought provoking.
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LadyDay
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Posted: Monday December 22nd, 2003 08:34 |
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kwese wrote: I agree with Ashanti
Every black person/person of colour MUSTread this book:
ROOTS By Alex Haley......its an education
Queen by alex haley is also worth a read as it is from the other parents history side of things.
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Posted: Monday December 22nd, 2003 12:47 |
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The Philosophy &
Opinions of Marcus Garvey
Compiled by Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey,
Anne Jacques Garvey, and Tony Martin
Without a doubt the most informative and uplifting book I've read in the last 5 years.
Also, you can choose from any of the many Hesaid mentioned...
http://www.blackchat.co.uk/theblackforum/forum27/1081.html
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Fredblack
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Posted: Tuesday December 23rd, 2003 02:22 |
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Kareem. The most inspiring speeches you will read from anybody this century or eariler. So inspirational will make you sweat if you have the intelligence, sensitivity and conciousness.
The greatest visionary and African leader. Ever. Described by Bob Marley as "Our Master, Mr Garvey".....The greatest son of Jamaica, the Founder of Modern Pan Africanism and Black Nationalism. The most influential African of all time.. . The conceptual archiect of the United States of Africa and its Diasporan Dependencies.
Kareem, boy you dropping it hard core. Me, I wouldn't even mention this book for now, coz you got to get through some of the above texts first and get your head and heart around them first, before you can step up to the high grade stuff.....You may regret dropping that book, god only knows what you might set off...
While we are on the subject of Garvey a book which is better for giving the broader historical/political/cultural context and outling The Master's impact after his death is
'GARVEY AND GARVEYISM' By Amy Jaques Garvey and John H Clarke.....
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Mafdet
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Posted: Tuesday December 23rd, 2003 07:17 |
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The ones I was going to say "Hesaid" them already..in the link posted by Kareem..thanks Hesaid thats the shortest post I have ever written. If I think of anymore I am sure you and Kareem will post them for me
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Tahliba
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Posted: Tuesday December 23rd, 2003 17:44 |
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Soledad Brothers, George Jackson
Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon
Black Skins White Masks, Frantz Fanon
Infact everything by Fanon
Conciencism, Kwame Nkrumah
Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, Nkrumah
Africa Must Unite, Nkrumah
Infact everything by Kwame Nkrumah
Barrel of a Pen, Ngugi Wa Thiongo
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney
From Capitalism to Slavery, Eric Williams
I Write What I like, Steve Biko
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 01:24 |
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@Kunjfu. Hey bro, after Talibah's list think the issue is almost done right here. Been surveying the books on the list to date. With the exception of a few eg the interesting anthropology text somebody recommended, which I need to check out, and Bell Hookes who was not around at the time in intellectual terms, and not of the weight of others included.
We now have the basic reading list for level 1 and 2 Conciousraising Classes which my organisation ran, and we educated and trained some damn good solidiers on that material. In fact I would swear Talibah is one of our crew given, I just scanned one of our old reading list and she has got one section almost verbatim. 
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 01:43 |
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 Almost forgot some for those with a regional interest.
All classic works and back in the day if you hadn't read them not allowed to enter serious people, particularly Caribbeean radicals from the islands, look on you like you are ignorant.
1. "Black Jacobins", Toussaint L'Overture and The Hatian Revolution, CLR's seminal and classic work viewed as one of the greatest of its kind
2. "How Europe Under Developed Africa-Dr Walter Rodney. Amazing study".
3. "From Columbus to Castro" Dr Eric Williams, and "Capitalism and Slavery", very detail examination of the economics of slavery in the Caribben
4. Resistance and Slavery Vol 1 & 2 Dr Richard Hart. The most detailed study of African resistance in Jamaica, including the key military campaign in the North. Excellent studies.
5. "African and Caribbean Politics" Dr Manning Marable.
This is not what I would call one of the great classic texts, but a very important book.
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Tahliba
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 04:47 |
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Fredblack, No I am not one of the 'crew' Although if it is the organisation I am thinking it is, (given what you said about the reading list), I have had contact with them over the years. If you do a word search of the old forum you may find they have been mentioned.
Industrialising Africa, Makonnen Alemyehu
Short Changed: Africa in World Trade, Micheal Barrett Brown
Famine Crimes : Politics And The Disaster Relief Industry in Africa, A. De Waal
some more recent, writings. I am also including a few good sites for reading material.
http://zmag.org/weluser.htm
http://www.africa2000.com/
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 07:39 |
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Taliba, only talking tongue in cheek. But the books you identified and the order hit me immeditately. Of course there is coincidence etc. But if I was to dig up one of the readings lists you would laugh. Such core reading was part of the basic reading list of the politically active. Almost catechism. You don't get the average person educated or not citing people like Soldedad Brothers/George Jackson and that kind of person, or saying anything by Fanon, a true genius and more....
But fine choice of wine if I may say so....
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Prince Hakeem
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 09:20 |
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The Judas Factor
Another recommendation. This book is a real eye opener. The last chapter is especially shocking.
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 11:54 |
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Prince Hakeem said of "The Judas Factor"
Another recommendation. This book is a real eye opener. The last chapter is especially shocking."
Shocking is one way of describing it. Shows those who are a bit unsure, what this thing is about, and who are enemies are and what evils looks like in black face, and those they serve. Moreover, shows us what we must be prepared to do to them.
The murder of the Iman's little children was one of the most hideous things I have ever read. Black men working for white men will murder a black mans children...
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Prince Hakeem
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Posted: Wednesday December 24th, 2003 22:11 |
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Fredblack wrote:
The murder of the Iman's little children was one of the most hideous things I have ever read. Black men working for white men will murder a black mans children...
That's the part that really troubled me after reading the book, more than anything else I had read in the previous chapters. I remember it staying in my mind the whole day after that. What the f*** makes someone shoot a little boy at point blank range then drown infants in a sink?
Many in the NOI were just gangsters hiding under the mask of being called 'Black Muslims'. Even before I read that book I always thought that the so called 'Honourable' Elijah Muhammed was a shady and ungrateful character. You know something's not right when a bunch of lunatics would get ready to kill anyone who even looks at their leader funny without leaving justice in the hands of the Most High. The excuse that many of the old prophets committed sins and fell short is just that - an excuse. The fact that they worked side by side with the FBI and CIA against Malcolm and other muslims really blows away any and everything they talk about. They let jealousy and animosity get better of them and rather than acknowledging the hard work that Malcolm had put into the Nation by introducing not hundreds, but THOUSANDS, of young blacks into the organisation.
Plus I don't even need to say anything on Louis "I admit I was guilty of creating the atmosphere that led to Malcolm's death" Farrakhan (please.....).
The splinter group Five Percent Nation (Nation of Gods and Earths) makes the point that there are black devils too and after reading that book you can't help but come to that conclusion. Many NOI members still alive who were active during that period have a lot to answer for.
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Posted: Thursday December 25th, 2003 00:57 |
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:Fredblack wrote:
"The murder of the Iman's little children was one of the most hideous things I have ever read. Black men working for white men will murder a black mans children"...
That's the part that really troubled me after reading the book, more than anything else I had read in the previous chapters. I remember it staying in my mind the whole day after that. What the f*** makes someone shoot a little boy at point blank range then drown infants in a sink?
Many in the NOI were just gangsters hiding under the mask of being called 'Black Muslims'. Even before I read that book I always thought that the so called 'Honourable' Elijah Muhammed was a shady and ungrateful character. You know something's not right when a bunch of lunatics would get ready to kill anyone who even looks at their leader funny without leaving justice in the hands of the Most High. The excuse that many of the old prophets committed sins and fell short is just that - an excuse. The fact that they worked side by side with the FBI and CIA against Malcolm and other muslims really blows away any and everything they talk about. They let jealousy and animosity get better of them and rather than acknowledging the hard work that Malcolm had put into the Nation by introducing not hundreds, but THOUSANDS, of young blacks into the organisation.
Plus I don't even need to say anything on Louis "I admit I was guilty of creating the atmosphere that led to Malcolm's death" Farrakhan (please.....).
The splinter group Five Percent Nation (Nation of Gods and Earths) makes the point that there are black devils too and after reading that book you can't help but come to that conclusion. Many NOI members still alive who were active during that period have a lot to answer for.
Prince Hakeem, The Black Panthers were even worse. Yes they had a large numbers of very righteous brothers and sisters, like Fred Hampton head of Chicago Chapter. An exemplarly leader. But the amount of thugs, gangsters, criminals and just low life, they had amongst their ranks, who contributed in the death and murder of so many and the destruction of the very thing they proclaimed to believe in.
Think about it from a FBI/CIA point of view doing in such organisations don't even require much work, such is the low calibre of so many of these people. Look at Tupacs mother she was a heroine addict while in the Panthers and got that probably from some brother in there already hooked. What type of sh*t is that. Those brothers just opened the doors and said your black and from ghettoe[which seems to be their only credentials], come right in, knowing that criminals are dangerous to the movement. Always |
