Afrikan-Trinis Identity Denial

Posted: May 29, 2001
Dr Kwame Nantambu

The recent racial, ethical incident that TnT and West Indies fast bowler Marlon Black experienced in Melbourne, Australia, should awake all Afrikan- Trinis as to their real racial, ethnic identity once they leave the shores of TnT.

Racial reality finally set in for Marlon Black, an Afrikan-Trini, as to who he really is to the outside world, whether he realizes it or not. Indeed, if he does not, then it only reflects the myopic, short- sided and asinine sub- conscious mind- set of Afrikan - Trinis as to their identity as a PEOPLE.

The incident in Australia is a reality check for all Afrikan- Trinis; it is a significant racial, ethnic wake- up call, by design and not by accident. Marlon Black and his two other fellow cricket associates need to hastily rewind social calypso commentator Stinger's rendition for the 2000 season titled "Fight" in which he correctly expounds that "in the eyes of the European man we All Black."

It is time for Afrikan - Trinis to come out of denial of their racial and ethnic identity.

Let us recall that in 1997, three white New York City police officers brutally beat an Afrikan- Haitian immigrant, named Abner Louima, outside a Brooklyn nightclub and then sodomized him with a broken broomstick on the bathroom floor of the police station.

Let us recall that recall that on 4 February 1999, an Afrikan immigrant named Amadou Diallo aged 22 years, was gunned down outside his Bronx, New York, apartment by four white undercover policemen.

Let us also recall that on 11 June 2000, three White German skinheads kicked to death a 39 year old immigrant from Mozambique, Afrika.

Now, the salient questions to ask about these three incidents are: who were the vicious attackers?; Who were the unarmed innocent and defenseless attacked?

The answers are very simple _______ the racist attackers were White and the attacked were BLACK.

In other words, these white attackers attacked their targets simply because they were BLACK/AFRIKAN. They attacked and killed NIGGERS; it is just that simple. These BLACK/AFRIKAN men who were attacked and killed could have been professors at Harvard or U. W. I. ; they could have been successful and multi-millionaire businessmen; these BLACK men could have been doctors, lawyers or dentists.

These BLACK men did not have a sign saying that they were Haitian, Mozambican or non Afrikan- American.

The white attackers DID NOT see these BLACK men as equal human beings; they saw a NOTHING people whose life is expendable and/ or worthless.

The fact of the reality is that under European supremacy there is NO room for equality, democracy and confraternity; under this global Eurocentric system, " the Black man has no rights which the white man is bound to respect."

And it Does Not matter whether you are Afrikan-American, Jamaican, Guyanese, Braizilan, South African or Trini living in Westwood Park or Westmoorings.

The fact of the matter is that we are ALL BLACK and it DOES NOT matter whether you are a university professor like this writer, a calypso commentator, a magistrate or a cricketer.

If Chalkdust is seen at night by White French supremists, he will be attacked as a Black man and NOT as a Trini . Similarly, if a resident of Westmoorings or Westwood Park were in Chalkie's shoes them he would also be brutally attacked as a Black man or NIGGER and NOT as a rich, bourgeois, middle class Trini. Rich , poor or vagrant, we are all BLACK under external global European supremacy.

Unless Afrikan - Trinis would like to travel abroad with a sign on their back saying that they are NOT BLACK or AFRIKAN- we are TRINIS. How ridiculous and utterly insane can Afrikan- Trinis be.

This was the shameful, asinine and laughable cultural response from Marlon Black about the racial incident on 11 February 2001 in Australia.

His response is: " It was really unfortunate. I think they mistook us for African people.

It was just a little mis-understanding ."

How STUPID can one person be?; under what rock or stone does Marlon Black live?; is this an example of the "Trini mentality"?

Let me try to set straight Marlon Black and other Trinis who think like him as to the reality of life.

Let me begin by stating that the "Trinia mentality" is NOT global phenomenon. It is just a STUPID, insane, irrelevant, myopic and asinine way of thinking and living that MUST be relegated to the garbage can and/or flushed down the comode.

The remarks by Marlon Black proves my first point to the maximum.

Let me inform Mr. Black that it was NOT "unfortunate" or "a little mis-understanding" that he along with Wavell Hinds and Sylvester Joseph were attacked at 4:30 a.m. that morning outside the Sirens nightclub at Colonial Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.

They were attacked because the white Australian supremists hate BLACK or AFRIKAN people - NIGGERS. If these cricketers were in any country in Europe, they would have received the same RACIST attack by white supremists.

This is called "racial profiling" in the United States with severe and deadly consequences for the Black man - he is the SOLE target; he is the SOLE victim. Mr. Black, you were NOT attacked because you are a Trini. Mr. Black you were NOT unfortunately mistaken for "African people."

Mr. Black, the white Australian supremists saw three NIGGERS; they saw three BLACK AFRIKAN men; they saw three expendable, worthless and nothing infidels, albeit NON-humans.

They DID NOT see three equal human beings that February morning. They DID NOT see three Trinis from Westmoorings or Westwood Park.

Yes, Mr. Black you are a BLACK or AFRIKAN man whether you like it or not. You are BLACK or AFRIKAN regardless of where you live in TnT and despite the size and cost of your house or the amount of money you may have in a TnT bank.

Mr. Black, regardless of how you think about yourself and live in TnT, to the outside world and under the global reality of European supremacy, you are and will be treated as BLACK, AFRIKAN and a NIGGER depending on the kind, mentality and viciousness of the Euro-White supremists you meet outside of TnT.

Mr. Black and other Trinis of similar mind-set, it is high time to wake up and smell the GLOBAL coffee --- it is BLACK or AFRIKAN; it DOES NOT have a Trini smell.

May be if Afrikan-Trinis DO NOT want to be considered BLACK or AFRIKAN, then my professional advice is simply this: DO NOT LEAVE TnT.

Afrikan-Trinis, as soon as you leave the shores of TnT, your true, historical and inherited ancestral identity kicks in --- to the outside world, you cease to be a Trini - you are now seen, treated and/or mis-treated as BLACK or AFRIKAN.

The sad outcome of this "racially motivated" Australian incident is the unbelievable truth that we Afrikans are the ONLY people on this planet earth who are PROUD, as Marlon Black apparently was, not only to deny our Blackness or Afrikanness but also to be unapologetically ashamed of it.

In other words, call me anything but BLACK or AFRIKAN; if this is NOT calculated cultural insanity and amnesia then I need to go back to graduate school to re-study, re-examine and re-locate Afrikan cultural history.

Afrikan-Trinis epitomize the zenith of cultural insanity and negative stupidity. This is self-inflicted mental slavery, at its wining best.

It represents mass cultural ethnic suicide on the part of Afrikan-Trinis. Afrikan-Trinis, look in the global mirror and you will see yourself as BLACK, and 100 percent AFRIKAN. That's who you are - case close, end of discussion!

When will you Afrikan-Trinis learn? European supremacy hits you dead straight in YOUR FACE, but yet still your absurd Trini mind-set denies that Blackness and/or Afrikanness has anything to do with it.

Mr. Marlon Black, your name is BLACK; you are Black as the ace of spade; yet you DO NOT consider yourself BLACK or AFRIKAN. What I would suggest to you so that you will not be mistaken and misunderstood abroad is that you need to change your name to WHITE; you need to bleach your skin lilly WHITE; you need to bleach your hair BLONDE and you need to wear false blue contact lenses.

In this new make-over, Mr. Marlon White, when you travel abroad to ploy cricket your now fellow White European supremists will understand you to be a White man, a fellow European. You will be left alone Mr. Marlon White - "foolish people."

How totally culturally insane can Afrikan-Trinis be?

May be Blackness really means DARKNESS. May be Afrikan-Trinis "like it so."

May be after teaching, lecturing and writing about Afrikan history, culture, nationalist struggle, etc., for over the past twenty-five years, I may be missing something.

Maybe Afrikan-Trinis are on to something and apparently know something that I DO NOT.

Maybe according to the "Trini way", one's ethnic/cultural identity has limitations and applications ONLY to TnT. Conversely, it must be brought to the fore the reality that Afrikan-Trinis' culture has been Kentuckyfried, MacDonaldanized, Royal Castlerized, Subwayed and Euro-Amiercanized to the hilt.

Let us not loose sight of the fact that a people who are ashamed of their cultural -ethnic historical identity are a NON-people.

As the deceased Afrocentric historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke warns:

"History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. The role of history is to tell a people what they have been and where they have been, what they are and where they are. The most important role that history plays is that it has the function of telling a people where they still must go and what they sill must be."

Afrikan-Trinis, it is time to embrace, be proud of and live out your historical clock for your own survival as a people in TnT. Nothing more, nothing less.

The bottom-line is that Afrikan-Trinis are suffering from the deadly disease of ethnic, cultural historical AIDS - but they DO NOT know that they are infected. They are suffering from dialectical stupidity and ahistoriography.

They assume that just because they are walking around TnT happy, cute and contented that they are well and cured. Indeed, their skin color, as in "Trini White", income, place of residence, education, job status, etc., are their daily, insane FIX- "foolish people".

Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").

Dr. Nantambu is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University, U.S.A.

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