b-sama:

The Bulk of Aid to Africa Comes From Ordinary Africans

There is so much debate today about aid and dependency with regard to Africa. The Western world media coverage of African and other refugees and the ever increasing asylum seekers are frequently portrayed as leeches and illegal aliens who are a helpless burden depending on generous Western assistance. This extends to African countries that are portrayed by the said media as constantly in need of help. The reality is, however, interestingly the opposite.

A big chunk of aid that reaches ordinary Africans come from Africans themselves in the form of self-help. This “aid” is in form of remittances. It is estimated that monies that flow to Africa through a combination of formal and informal channels amount to roughly $250 billion a year according to the World Bank estimates.

Incidentally the media rarely talk about Africans being their own biggest aid donors and investors. But the media’s oversight does not stop here. Africa remains a huge aid donor to the West in form of skills transfer. I have mentioned in this column before about brain drain in form of highly skilled Africans working in the Western world. Professor Ali Mazrui calls this brain gain.

Interesting. 

freshmouthgoddess:

cynicalapathy:

i am so tired misogyny in my country so fucking tired and to ask me that i need to defend men from the way they are portrayed in the west is beyond awful it is pure evil how dare you till me to defend my oppresses 

they can fucking defend themselves 

we were just talking about it last night.. it really is fucking disgusting. make my blood boil my eye twich and raises my hypertension

(via freshmouthgoddess)

This is male privilege

cynicalapathy:

aboutmaleprivilege:

this is sexist fatist and ablist

^

I find interesting how I have never seen dissected the fact the foreveraloneguys/nice guys tm/MRA are almost all WHITE, CIS, ABLE-BODIED ect basically the least discriminated group of people that can be. And the fact that these movements, groups, sub-cultures take roots in America, which is the leader of the white supremacist world, is not a coincidence to me. This is the most entitled group of people who live in a culture and world that permanently legitimises their sense of entitlement not only to them but to us, those they oppress, too. No other group of people can get away with this, NONE! Not even CIS, THIN, ABLE-BODIED, AMERICAN, MOC. America has a history of lynching black men simply for looking at white women, making it a country where white women can enact oppressive misandry over men of color.  Anyway black men are conceived as bad, over-sexual, violent and bestial in essence so it would be difficult for them to fit in the ‘nice guy’ stereotype even as nerds. Black men who adopt attitudes similar to nice guys’ are those “I am a perfect black man/black women aint shit” type of dudes, but even them are still perceived as threats or danger within society. Anyway, black women’s womanhood is still contested so it is not like they desire us as a prize - we are still considered utterly worthless - for all their goodness and perfection like nice guys desire white women as the reward they are owed. On the other hand, Asian men are so emasculated that they are thought as not even deserving a woman, not even Asian women who have been made sole properties of white men. This is in the US because here in the UK, Asian men are considered dangerous just like black men but in a different way. They are lumped with middle-Eastern men under the stereotype of the brown savage and terrorist who oppresses his woman. There is a lot of islamophobia attached to how brown men, either Muslim or not, are perceived over here. And then you have white males. Walking the Earth as perfect human beings to whom EVERYTHING IS OWED, just like blue-eyed, blond-haired Jesus before them. This whole world, our whole existences revolved around fulfilling the needs of that tiny group of people and any contestation of this is perceived and yep conceived as a direct attack against them, against the natural order of things - since they get to define it - which must be fixed at any cost be it the lives of millions. 

Make not mistake about it, nice guy culture is one of the many expressions of the institutionalised pathology of cis white men as a group of people at the very very top of the hierarchical structure. It is white supremacy, it is rape culture, it is the culture of abuse and violence we are living in. Which is why I have never understood why it is not approached as something that reeks of apathy and sociopathy. Nice guy culture is not only at play when white men whine on the internet because they are lonely, it is also at play when they lash out and kill dozens of others, decimate families and pity parties are organised for them and fandoms created just because ‘they are misunderstood, fragile, little souls and the whole wide world is mean to them’. Nice guy culture is black and brown men being seen as dangerous when the judicial system and the media can show compassion to serial killers and psychopaths who are overwhelming white males.

I created this blog to have a voice. Not only that but to learn and gain a deeper understanding of myself and the world in order to have more agency on my life. And this past year I have grown up more than the five previous years put together. So it is indeed a matter of survival when I feel the safety of my space threatened by a toxic climate of tension and fear. And due to social anxiety, socially ambiguous situations where a lot is not what it appears to be, where it is required from me to decrypt and make sense of faux cues people are sending such as passive-aggression, repressed anger and fear is absolutely unbearable to me. I just cannot deal with that shit and a lot of times, I would like to be like those who pay their internet connection, create a blog just to censor themselves, make desperate and hermetic posts where they try and take shot at people without seeming like it or addressing something that is bugging them but feel like they cannot do it directly and live in fear of fully expressing themselves because ‘they do not want drama’ even if drama means having important issues dealt with rather than being eaten up by them and consumed by fear. Well I do not judge them, people handle as much as they can, people are in different stages in their lives, but this is just not me!! I am an impulsive person and I either have a voice or not! Full stop!!

I already have to deal with a real world where I am required to look down and lower my voice and I think this is the case for many of us here. That shit just wont fly over here and if I feel like dumping everything on the table I will do it! I dont do any social contract that requires me to negate or silence myself anymore and I wont compromise on this! I do not want my liberties to be conditional anymore and need the complete freedom to define myself. Once upon a time I thought this was the same from all of us here, judging from what people write about and their blogs. I just foolishly thought that most were here to challenge, defy and take on an oppressive society, NOT reproduce a carbon copy of it in this microcosm; and boy was I wrong on this one! Which is why for the longest I wondered why the most disgraceful, stupid, ignorant shit get approved in a frenetic and gleeful agitation by people clamouring 24/7 to want change, growth and revolution; To the point where dogma, censorship and ignorance have taken over. The pathological society, with its unfair hierarchy which crushes the weakest ones at the bottom, those who are fragile and vulnerable and can not stand for themselves, those who are scared, lonely and do not have a mob behind them, so get erased, silenced, humiliated and threatened … the pathological society, that we are supposedly all against has reborn here (sorry I think English failed me there :/).

And the only explanation I have for this is the fact that , well we are all here I think to find a refuge from the real world, a place where we can feel safe, find a group of people who go through the same things as we do and feel like we belong. This is understandable, this is normal, this is healthy. The problem though is that, from my point of view, most want it AT ANY COST, be it basic decency, moral, truth, knowledge. And this is an absolute tragedy because there can be NO growth, NO progress without the aforementioned things. I see it as basically the dilemma at the heart of every human existence. How much of our comfort are we ready to renounce for our principles?? How far out of our comfort zone are we ready to go in order to chase the ideals we believe in? Life starts at the end of the comfort zone! I think it is because of all of this that most discussions here never get past the reactionary stage! They never reach the point where self-assessment and nuance are needed because issues of identity are extremely personal, hence intrinsic to inner contradictions and conflicts, and not simply a matter of right or wrong, a matter of who can shout the loudest, a pissing match!

There is no challenge, no evolution, no learning, no grasping of the world mechanisms and  dynamics of power in a way that would produce solutions or appropriate coping mechanisms that could help us challenge the obstacles of every day life as oppressed. From what I have experienced these past few months on this website, I can affirm with certitude that the overwhelming majority of people here have ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING CLUE what they are blogging about. Very very few people understand what privileges and many concepts they blog about 24/7 are and how they work. Or maybe they only understand them when they get to throw at white people’s faces “Check your privilege!” in a vitriolic trance and only see themselves as victims and never agents in an oppressive structure. So yeah, there is indeed some sort of atrophy of intellectual and emotional capacities and this brings me to the impunity that fosters the culture of abuse here. Many here are above absolutely everything , in reference to to the hierarchical system that reproduces the silencing and abuse of the weakest. There is absolutely no fucking responsibility, no accountability and hence no fucking moral! While reading some of the absolutely imbecilic and gross shit that are said or happen on my dash I simply refuse to believe that most of the people involved are adults and in age to vote. There might be some sort of regression happening when some log online because I cannot imagine adults behaving in such an appalling and disgusting way in the real world! 

There are things I can control and things I can’t and these are few of them! I can control my eagerness to learn and challenge myself. I try to write in my sense-making quest and know that by doing so I expose myself to the vitriolic and toxic culture here. I know that the internet never forgets and that the hivemind never forgives but this is the price of growing I guess. It is indispensable to make mistakes, lose face and put my ego aside.  The worst thing that could happen to me would be to end up like one of the many ignorant and dumb sheep here that avidly swallow all the shit thrown at them in the safety of the comfort zone of delusions and miss out on amazing opportunities because they are blinded by their egos. If I ever use my privilege t oppress other, not amount of negative feedback on-line will never equal the reality of their oppression or suffering. So please never hesitate to challenge me or confront me. I have been told that my delivery may scare some people off lol, well like I said I am quite impulsive and passionate so it is nothing personal and if it was, I would state it openly. 

Why Are You Following Me?

eclecticspectrum:

imsooappalled:

I couldn’t believe it when this popped up on my dashboard

And I double checked just to see if my mind was playing tricks on me and here it is again

Why in the world are you following me? You still can’t call me by the name I’ve asked you to use. You have hurled slurs at me multiple times. When people were threatening to release my info you encouraged it. You’re quick to call someone a stalker but yet you’re following me. What for? To see what I post~~ about you and how pressed~ I am. Not only are you a generally horrible and ignorant person you’re also creepy. You talk about not having a life you’re harassing a 17 year old, aren’t you too grown for this? Unfollow me and reevaluate your life choices while you’re at it.

smh…..

I’m so confused by this. Some individuals on Tumblr really don’t have anything else better to do. I’m sorry Lee.

O_____o

I rolled in my grave!! Dafuq?

See how people let this disgraceful shit slides then open their hypocrite ass mouths to talk about abuse, safe spaces, black unity blablah blah UGHHHHH

Anyway I am off to write about the nauseating impunity and blatant lack of moral and basic decency from a specific group of people on this website who get a silent approval from the sheep-like mass.

(via ahenfo)

Experiment

freshmouthgoddess:

TW: Rape

TW i think i started to realize how western womanism and feminism was no longer for me after the earthquake.. to many shit was happening.. Haitian men all the other men that came to “help” and “protect” Were commiting atrocities on Haitian women and childrenn..’ and the fucking Westernized Haitian Feminist was like how dare you talk bad about Haiti .. about how rape is endemic in the camps.. how dare you.. then i realized these fucking women were not about my safety they were working hard trying to prove shit to white people when women and girls were dying and they had to arm themsleves form attacks on all side.. like there is ZERO fucking respomsability pit on Haitian men who rape and terrorize women and children because gasp… white people are watching …. white people white people ….. i worked with enough men in the camps to know that .. it was always the women fault for getting rapes because they were bsthing naked by the side of the road .. BECAUSE YOU STUPID FUCKERS SHE CAN”T USE THE SHOWERS BECAUSE SHE IS AFRAID OF BEING ALONE THERE WHEN SOME GUY COMRS FOR HER SO SHE WOULD RATHER BATHE IN THE OPEN BECAUSE SHE CAN CRY FOR HELP AND PEOPLE WILL SEE HER… anyways.. i hate when western feminist of all colors talk about our oppression as a monolith.. because white people ..,and shit.. like excuse me.. but we are dying a lot and the it’s not only whiteness it’s blackness too and other POC and look i get that stuff is different for you but .... in your we must protect the black men too you are essentially protecting the people that rape and kill us and kill our babies and sell them into slavery , or forces us to have a bunch of babies that they can sell into slavery.. and host of other shit.. and then it angers me.. bevause i feel like i’m being mocked like my oppression don’t matter because i ahould learn that all black dudes are my min or some shit.. and i’m like nooo..noo.. nooo.. no…like i cna count in jy fingers the number of black dudes i can count on to like really help me to be a soldier for my cause .. right like there is like one dude … one due and i shit you fucking not… i should have more living in a black country .. but nope… ..

(via freshmouthgoddess)

mantu-o-formosa:

dreams-from-my-father:

Black Unity is just as cheap to me as we all bleed red. I will never let anyone get me trapped in that BS to justify and validate their oppression over me or silence me again. 

And this also goes for all those faux solidarities group born amongs POC in the west to ensure that obviously make no account of those at the very bottom and are detrimental to me.

Yes, the POC part. Also, that Arabs (both in diaspora and living here) should be united. Or all brown people (who dont live in the west) should be united against the white man. No, I’m over this idiotic concept. If we want progress,  we need to acknowledge our prejudices and especially in non-western countries, leave the idea that the only oppression is the one caused by the white man cause here it is not.

Bolded is mine. From what went down these past weeks here on Tumblr, it seems that many people in the west have difficulties conceiving that oppressed people can be oppressors too. I even had someone ask me how is this possible. Like WTF? They try and explain everything away by dumping it on white people and in the midst, no one among us is being held accountable so the internal oppression goes on.

Like for instance here when we talk about homophobia in the global south, we talk a lot about religion, about colonisation, about white people but never the atrocities that the people is committing on its own. We are too lenient and not demanding enough. We do not even attempt to deconstruct what is going without drawing whiteness in. I remember once hearing about the story of a gay man whose corpse was unburied and thrown in from of the doors of his parents because they protected him, stood by him and didn’t disowned him. You just cannot blame this on white people! No one wants to face this head on, for fear of having our ugly side expose because we are only secure in narratives where we are the victims!

(via mantu-o-formosa-deactivated2012)

Black Unity is just as cheap to me as we all bleed red. I will never let anyone get me trapped in that BS to justify and validate their oppression over me or silence me again. 

And this also goes for all those faux solidarities group born amongs POC in the west to ensure that obviously make no account of those at the very bottom and are detrimental to me.

Solidarity, a definition

Solidarity is not simply a matter of circumstances. It is not a mere accident and not all alliances are built on it.

Solidarity is weaved through thick and thin, around differences, inequalities and divergences that are not erased but fully acknowledged and integrated within all dynamics and interactions in order to ultimately promote the autonomy and self-determination of each member!! It absolutely requires reciprocity and equality, hence should be based on terms that satisfy all parties, especially the most disadvantaged!

Solidarity is not something forced on the oppressed by oppressive fucks convinced they are owed something!!!

Experiment

freshmouthgoddess:

dreams-from-my-father:

lookingforthesteel:

eclecticspectrum:

lookingforthesteel:

eclecticspectrum:

I feel like I should change the name of my url, and have photo of a black man as my avi.

Bet money I’d have more followers and folks in inbox aching to talk to me.

Yo when people thought I was a man on tumblr, I had people taking what I said a whole lot more seriously and I had a bunch of new followers and that was only in the space of a few days.

What I find so hilarious is that a good chunk of the “conscious” black men on Tumblr have the most mediocre blogs. Hell, mediocre is a compliment. They have never read any texts by women. They are oblivious in regards to the black patriarchy. And they spit the rhetoric from the 60’s that needs to be deconstructed.

Step ya game up.

But don’t you know they got their ankhs and egyptology knowledge in check? The worst is when you come through and try and get all “yes Queen!” on serious ish. They ain’t worth a damn and tbh annoy the hell out of me. Oh, and then they start trying to go international with their knowledge and the only person they can drop is Frantz Fanon. I’m so over it but they get a hellu’va lot of praise

Thanks brother, you are so knowledgeable on issues.

womp womp

So I read this post and I laughed for about 10 mins straight XD OMG There are soooooo many men like this on Tumblr ahahahahaha Their egos are going to be all crushed XD when they read this. That ankhs part was just a stab in the chest!!! Why?? XD LMAO

As for the 60’s mindset, I dont want to fire any shot against amazing black women who did so much for us but I think that the womanist approach that consists of protecting black men no matter what against white people might partly be to blamed. They know that we unconditionally have their backs so why check for us?? This is partly why black patriarchy is never de-constructed because we have been trained for so long to stand by them no matter what against white people. And this is how people get trapped in a false sense of unity and shit. We fight their battle for them but please correct me if I am wrong, I have NEVER seen black men demonstrating the same collective support to us as we have been giving them. The revolution what conceived as patriarchal in essence since the main threat is white supremacy without acknowledging all the dynamics at play that influence and shape its impact.

This is where afrocentrism failed so hardddd. This goes as much for patriarchy as cissexism, homophobia and all different level of privileges. With times it became a dogma feeding off caricatures and stereotypes instead of challenging them.

yes to all of this.. i think it is why i’m rethiking how i identify.. womanism i discovered while in the US but truthfully.. it is not for me because i can no longer factor black men in my empowerment and liberation. in fact balck men and white supremacy, colonialism, occupation, theocracy, and a host of other issues are some of the biggest obstaclesto my libaration, empowerment… maybe i need a a new movement that will be created to free the black women. for her empowerment.. and to fight for the .libaration that all black libaration always forget. i won’t lie i think the primary reason the revolutions all floundered was because women and other marginalised people were not are not included in the struggle.. maybe i need a movement taht speaks more to me as “third wold’ GLOBAL southern woman

I actually wrote this with this post of yours in mind. And I totally agree with you. 

I think that womanism cannot integrate our realities as women from the global South because unlike our western counterparts, white supremacy is not lived as an immediate threat, we do not lead lives where we have to face white people everyday so in our context, the notion of unity at all cost, protecting black men despite their misogyny, is counter-intuitive and counter-productive.  

There should be more talks about responsibility and accountability and me must try and centre the debate away from back and forth with white people. For instance I am very uncomfortable with the way misogyny and queerphobia in Africa is addressed here. There is a lot of hypocrisy and denial of our own responsibility in what is going on. Sure white people colonised us and brought with them a lot of toxic shit but stop pretending that we, or certain group do not totally embrace these institutions. Yeah there is poverty, yeah there are dictatorships but seriously a lot of the oppression is the fault of some group that should be held accountable for it and not solely whitey. Trigger Warning, I am about to go raw here, but the alarming rate at which African women are raped is not the making of white people!! White people are not the one raping queer African women to ‘fix’ them!! The way domestic violence is held as a cultural and traditional practice cannot just be dumped on white people. The way queer people are victimised and harassed and even their families, is not solely the making of white people. Can we deal with our internal affairs by owning up to our shit, not be tunnel-visionned by denouncing whiteness and be blinded by a fallacious notion of solidarity based on NOTHING?? Because this is what it is all about right?? This is why I am distanced myself from western-grown or centric concepts because they are almost extremely myopic when it comes to unity or making sense of ourselves in a non-reactionnary way. This foster a lot of internal impunity and allow oppression to go unchallenged  We need to check ourselves too! And I refuse to fall for the cheap garbage of unity at all cost!

(via freshmouthgoddess)

Harrassment stories ( because they know )

freshmouthgoddess:

Here the thing I read all the Harrasment stories. and all the war stories. and All i think is fuck black dudes.

See they Know what terror feels like . they know  it form being pursued by racist cop/military . they know what it’s like having to control what they say how they move as to not end up dead. They know  . And this is why  WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU ! BECAUSE YOU KNOW > yet here you are  reigning your misogynist of terror on us . because we the black women must not only deal with  racist sexist white male and others .. she must deal with you too. But YOU KNOW .. you too developed survival mechanism to SURVIVE those encounters. but then you turn around and terrorize us  just like they terrorize you !  FUCK YOU FUCK YOUR LIFE FUCK YOUR EXISTENCE. because YOU KNOW.  I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU BECAUSE YOU KNOW> HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN RACIST COPS. RACIST MILITARY OCCUPIERS HUMILIATE YOU. TREAT YOU LIKE A LESSER BEING MAKE YOU FEEL POWERLESS?  think about this . think about this  for a very long time. well this is how you turn and treat US . so fuck you again. FOR ME  THOSE BLACK DUDES ARE ON THEIR OWN.   because I have to survive the racist misogynist. and between me and you  I WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED BY YOU TOO. YOU AIN”T SHIT . I WANT NOTHING NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU LOT> BECAUSE YOU KNOW TERROR. YOU KNOW .  YES THAT IS RIGHT I EXPECT BETTER FROM YOU BECAUSE YOU KNOW.  but since you won’t behave and treat me like a human being. fight for your own liberation . it is what you have done anyways . I will fight for my own. I owe YOU NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING  and I will make sure the future GENERATION KNOWS THAT SHE OWES YOU NOTHING TOO

YOU HATE US  JUST LIKE THE RACIST COPS/ MILITARY OCCUPIERS DO. and this is were I’m going to file you.

^^^^^^

I have seen it here time and time again from these ‘male feminists’ *cough* *cough* trying to justify and excuse black men’s misogyny by claiming that since white men inform what is to be a man, black men should not/ cannot really be held responsible (¬_¬)

Countless times, I have seen women take the defense of misogynistic shit fucks like Odd Future, Jay-Z and that rapper who was advising young black males to sexually abuse and assault black girls!

Yet I have NEVER EVER EVER EVER seen black men collectively demonstrating the same support and dedication!! 

Yeah, all our reality is informed by whiteness since we live within white supremacy DUHHHH!! But debates around black males’ misogyny, like all debates among people of African descents, are trapped in that delusional and fallacious ‘unity’ whose ultimate goal is to cater to the white gaze at the expense of those at the very bottom, in this case black women. Womanists have been concerned about black men’s well-being for decades, did it make them collectively less misogynistic?? A time for responsibility must come! And quick!!

I am just fucking fed up with the fact that ALL conversations about black men’s misogyny have to fucking be derailed by their struggle and hardship within whiteness; and I, a black woman, at the receiving end of misogyny from both black and white men, am ordered to be understanding, open for ‘constructive debate’ FUCK THAT!! Fuck that ‘constructive debate’ that never addresses the facts that black men do have economical, political, cultural and social POWER over black women (hence more agency within white supremacy) and that black misogyny target nobody else but black women!! I have never seen properly dissected here the various ways in which black men, intentionally or not, deploy their power to oppress us yet I have read ginormous garbage such as someone once claiming that it was the understandable result of black men’s emasculation within white supremacy, say what???!?!?! 

I have said this time and time again: I DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE A FLYING FUCK OR SIMPLY HEAR ABOUT YOUR PAIN IF YOUR PAIN, AS SOMEONE WITH POWER OVER ME, LEAD YOU TO HURT ME!! FUCK THY PAIN AND FUCK ANY PRIVILEGED PIECE OF SHIT CONVINCED THAT THEIR SUFFERING ENTITLES THEM TO MAKE ME THEIR PUNCHING BALL!! I WILL NEVER EVER LET ANYONE USE THEIR PAIN TO OPPRESS ME!! I am so done with holding people’s hands just to be spat on! At the end of the day, as a black woman, EVERYBODY shits on me and I shouldn’t have to take nicely any blow thrown at me while I am on the floor!

Using your pain to justify/excuse inflicting pain onto others is the typical oppressive tactic which assumes that oppressors’s pain de facto holds more value than the one they are inflicting to their victims, and aims to swift the line of debate so that oppressors are perceived as the ultimate victims in the situation. Hence all the sympathy, time, attention, focus, concern, support that should go to the real victims, are then given to those who oppressed them! This is disgusting blatant erasing manipulative and silencing shit! And you perfectly nailed it! It is indeed because THEY KNOW how it feels like to be degraded  humiliated, coerced, harrassed and dehumanised that they should fucking know better and more should be expected from them instead of constantly trying to explain away their excusable behavior!

People are putting the cart before the horse. We shouldn’t assume and pretend that the sole fact of a shared oppression is ground for a unity strong enough to tackle down whiteness!! We should drop that front for a minute, stop trying to get a white people and properly discuss and go through our internal affairs. It is only with a strong and unified coalition that we can defy whiteness. Until then, tschuss! 

Segregation in Haiti

freshmouthgoddess:

I will have folks know that light skin folks segragated themsleves from darker skin Haitian. tha if one of them married darker it was cause for disownement from thier family. that many of them to this day do not identify as black and that if you did call some black that would be the most insulting thing ever. you might as well spit in thier faces. the only people light skin one who accept their blackness are from the Haitian Diaspora and the lower class light skin folks. otherwise they are the primary supporters of colorist white supremacy in Haiti..