Former DR Congo rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda is at the Hague to see if he will stand trial for war crimes. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
BBC News Africa is reporting that former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda is appearing at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ntaganda is accused of committing war crimes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo a decade ago. The hearing is to determine if there is enough evidence to bring Ntaganda to trial. The author writes:
“He was once one of the ICC’s most wanted suspects, accused of using child soldiers, keeping women as sex slaves, and murder.
When he appeared in The Hague soon after his surrender, he pleaded not guilty, before the judge interrupted him and said he should not enter a plea at this stage.
Gen Ntaganda has fought for a number of rebel groups as well as the Congolese army.
He was part of the Union of Congolese Patriots rebel group, led by Thomas Lubanga who last year became the only person convicted by the ICC.
Eastern DR Congo has suffered from two decades of violence linked to ethnic rivalries and competition for the control of the area’s rich mineral resources, which has left an estimated five million people dead.”
Chanteuse Angelique Kidjo has written a memoir ‘Spirit Rising.’ (Photo Credit: Pierre Marie Zimmerman)
Angelique Kidjo recently released her memoir, Spirit Rising, followed by her 13th album, Eve, simultaneously. Both projects are platforms for the Grammy-winning world music artist to continue her knacks for multitasking and humanitarianism.
An energetic Kidjo says via phone en route to another interview, “Writing the album and writing the book are complimentary to me. They really taught me the reasons why I do what I do. I’m used to doing two or three things at the same time like any woman in the world. That’s what we do,” she says.
Eve, like the tireless vocalist’s previous efforts, meshes elements of Afrobeat, R&B, soul, jazz, salsa, reggae, gospel, rhumba, zook and makossa. Kidjo’s vivacious vocals are sung primarily in English, Yoruba, French and Fon. When Kidjo sings, she’s accompanied by a chorus of primitive call-and-response chants or rhythmic percussive arrangements.
Eve is the celebrated vocalist’s concept album that pays homage to women and girls in Africa. Kidjo’s songwriting process took about three years to complete. She frequently visited villages throughout her homeland for inspiration. “I just do what I have to do. I have a voice to be heard. We have to do everything in our power to make things happen,” says Kidjo with her West African accent.
Kidjo’s spirited music portrays both a lively ambiance and infectious energy. She feels stifled sometimes when she’s in the recording studio making magic. The giddy singer, whose husband co-writes her material, enjoys collaborating. “Our goal is the conversation. It’s respect. I like to feel that we can all be together, do it, come together and play. The elements never collide. They form a unity,” says a giggling Kidjo.
Spirit Rising mixes personal narratives with Kidjo’s favorite recipes, still photographs, wisdom and song lyrics. The book is a hybrid of her passions: music, storytelling and preparing meals for close family and friends. Writing the book, she says wasn’t an easy process. “Writing a memoir was much more difficult that writing songs, I’ll tell ya that. All of those things define me. I really love doing those things together. It’s who I am,” says Kidjo.
Kidjo’s memoir was originally a coping strategy to mourn her father’s passing in 2008. “Everyone was seeing me struggle with my pain. They urged me to record all of those memories,” she says. As the stories developed, Kidjo made it quite clear to cowriter, Drexel University professor Rachel Wenrick, “It has to be my book. You have to tell the story the way I’m telling it to you. No one can define you unless you let them do that. I want it to be good to people. I want people to relate to it. That’s how I balance it,” says an assured Kidjo.
With Eve and Spirit Rising, Kidjo feels compelled to call attention to social problems. She has no qualms expressing concerns about social injustice, poverty, domestic violence or the effects of war on society. She believes in the power of the human race. “Everything is connected. There’s only one human family. We all love together. If we don’t take care, we will not be able to blame anybody but ourselves,” says Kidjo.
No stranger to political war and oppression, Kidjo herself even relocated from Benin to Paris in 1980. Kidjo believes being a catalyst for change starts with self. “We want change. If you want revolution, you cannot decide for other people. We all have to come together and decide what kind of society we want. Being an activist is just being conscious no matter what is going on,” says Kidjo.
The dynamic, outspoken agent of social change takes matters into her own hands. “Life is complicated and simple at the same time. It depends on what you want from it. If we don’t talk, speak up or let our leaders know what we want as people, our silence gives them the power to use anyway they want to. Don’t just put it out there and talk about stuff that you don’t even know how you’re gonna fix it,” believes Kidjo.
Another element to Kidjo’s empathetic advocacy work is encouraging people across the world to feel the vibrancy of the African continent. The NAACP Image Award winner doesn’t care for Westernized views of African people and culture being perceived as unsophisticated or savages. “If we can’t see the beauty in Africa, we can’t see the beauty in ourselves. We are all Africans. If Africa don’t do right, the world don’t do right,” says Kidjo.
With the new album, book and continuous activism work, Kidjo is both grateful and overjoyed by the power of her music makes a global impact. She’s one of Africa’s most renowned and politically conscious female performers. However, she’s not afraid to have a sense of humor. When it comes to her art, Kidjo thinks being an entertainer just comes naturally.
“The most important thing is to breathe. I’ve always been in a state of mind that anything can happen and be prepared for anything that comes. I don’t try to prepare too much. I just do what I have to do,” says Kidjo.
This post was written by Christopher A. Daniel, pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.
Oklahoma State player Marcus Smart is verbally abused by Texas Tech fans before shoving Jeff Orr. (Photo Credit: ESPN screen grab)
Marcus Smart is a talented basketball player whose level of college play will eventually lead him to the NBA. The Oklahoma State University sophomore has been harangued by fans, pundits and the blogosphere for his run-in with Texas Tech’s “super fan” Jeff Orr. You may recall that Smart shoved Orr after Orr and a female companion and another older female fan yelled obscenities at Smart while he was going for a ball which landed him near the stands. In fact, one of the ladies had a Jan Brewer moment, shoving her finger into Smart’s face, which can be seen before he shoves Orr. Initially it was reported that Orr called Marcus Smart the “N” word and told him to go back to Africa.
Orr admits that he called Smart a “piece of crap,” but did not use a racial slur, as if that is acceptable. I fully believe that Orr called him the “N” word because that is a word that would elicit that kind of response from Smart or any other self-respecting person of color being bullied by an aging “super fan” without moral boundaries. NBA basketball player John Lucas, III said that Orr used to say horrible things to him while he was playing college basketball. There’s footage of Orr making an obscene hand gesture at players in 2010. Even Desmond Mason, an 11-year NBA veteran who believes that Smart’s response was wrong, stated that he was called the “N” word “every” game he played in Lubbock.
There is the rub – a history and culture of racism that cannot be cured by the addition of Tubby Smith as head coach. The idea that black players are supposed to rise above the fray when they are the only players being bullied and harassed with hateful words based on the color of their skin is ridiculous. This type of treatment of black athletes is not specific to the U.S. One only has to look at the horrific display of cruelty lobbed at AC Milan soccer player Mario Ballotelli who was reduced to tears by racist taunts from fans. Ballotelli, whose parents are from Ghana, was repeatedly bullied and called racist epithets including “monkey” during the game. This type of brutal behavior is common practice in soccer, with fans waving and throwing banana peels on the field and shouting racist obscenities at players of African descent. Last May, Roma fans did the same thing to Ballotelli, with the referee having to stop the match to ask fans to refrain from the racist insults, which leads me back to Marcus Smart.
AC Milan soccer player Mario Balotelli was reduced to tears after being called racist names. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
When are people in positions of authority like Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford going to stand up for black players? His pathetic press conference claiming to “love” Smart and “know his heart” would suggest that he would support Marcus Smart instead of throwing him under the bus, backing up and running over him again.
Coaches like Ford stand on the shoulders of these players en route to each national championship making millions of dollars for the NCAA, schools and a host of other stakeholders, but when “superfans,” many of whom are also boosters (hence the great seats) hurl the most vile racist epithets at players, the coach doesn’t stand up for the player or speak out against the behavior of the overzealous fan? Instead of admonishing Marcus Smart for his reaction, which is understandable when facing that type of verbal assault, shouldn’t we be admonishing the bullying of players with verbally abusive and racist language? It’s easy to say what you will or won’t do from the sidelines or while sitting in front of computer, but when faced with the type of verbal abuse that black athletes experience, on a regular and ongoing basis at games and in the blogosphere, who is to say what one would do, especially a teenager?
If I have said it once, I’ve said it many times that the world is unwilling to see young, black men as victims. One only has to look at the photo of Ballotelli weeping after a game or the use of Trayvon Martin’s image to promote a “celebrity” boxing match as examples of this phenomena. One only has to look at Smart’s treatment by a coach who claims to “love” him and “know his heart,” but fails to stand up for this young man whom he knows was wronged. It is 2014, not 1914 so why are we acting like some aging white man hurling racist insults at a young black player is par for the course?
In fact, it is 2014 and fans should know better. There is a reason for the term “fighting words,” and if you choose to use fighting words like racist epithets, then there could be consequences. If Orr is “man” enough to verbally abuse players, then he should be “man” enough to accept the consequences.
I’m one of the few people on this planet who thinks that Marcus Smart did nothing wrong in that instance and should not have had to apologize for standing up for himself, especially when it has become increasingly clear that no one will stand up for him, including his coach, against a mean-spirited fan with a long history of verbally abusing players. Orr and his crew (I’m not letting his female companion off of the hook) have gone unchecked for decades and if those in power like the coaches, NCAA officials and referees fail to rein in abusive fans, then what do they think is going to happen?
The continued pummeling of Marcus Smart, who has been suspended for 3 games, while overlooking the conditions that caused the action reflects the willingness of many who should know better, to perpetuate what has become normative – the demonizing of young black men to explain away bad behavior by full grown adults. I cannot imagine hateful fans on the sidelines calling women players the B-word or C-word at the top of their lungs and nothing happening. Why is this acceptable behavior by fans towards black male athletes?
During the press conference, a female reporter asked Coach Ford if Marcus Smart was going to get some counseling to deal with his issues? If the NCAA, athletic directors, coaches, fans and sports journalists are willing to lay this entire debacle at the feet of a 19-year-old, then clearly Smart isn’t the only one in need of counseling.
Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. is the founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news site The Burton Wire. She is a media scholar who examines the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality in legacy and new media. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
Former NFL star Terrell Owens’ wife Rachel Snider has filed for divorce after two weeks of marriage. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
Beleaguered former NFL star Terrell Owens is unofficially single again. After only 2 weeks of marriage, Rachel Snider, the woman who married the former NFL and reality show star wants a divorce. While this marriage proved particularly brief, it is a sad fact of the times that a large percentage of marriages do actually end in divorce. Using services like those of jacksonville fl divorce attorneys could help to make this distressing legal process somewhat more manageable and less stressful. The man who spent a couple of seasons during his reality show, ‘The T.O. Show’ searching for a life partner, is already headed to splitsville. Snider says that she’s leaving the father of four because she believes Owens only married her for money and used her so he could get a loan for a $2 million home in Sherman Oaks, CA. We’re hoping that they can get the help of a family lawyer and that they will go to Peters And May or a lawyer closer to home to help them with the divorce.
With divorce rising among celebrities, a two-week marriage ending in such a fashion is not new. Throughout the years divorce among celebrities appears to get more and more frequent, most of which end with them splitting up with minimal issues. Still, celebrities need to abide by the laws of their state when it comes to divorce, for example, an uncontested divorce in California may be different to uncontested divorces in Georgia. They will need to get in touch with a good lawyer who can help them abide by the laws of the state, making sure that they are ending their marriage lawfully.
Hazing incidents at University of Georgia and San Jose State top news. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
Mike Morris of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that 11 members of the University of Georgia chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. have been charged with hazing for allegedly beating pledges last week as part of their initiation. All but one of the members have turned themselves in at the Clarke County Jail. Most have been booked and released on $2500 bail. Morris reports:
“’We began an investigation after we were provided with information by Student Affairs that someone was possibly injured during a pledge event,’ UGA police Chief Jimmy Williamson told the Banner-Herald.
The alleged incident happened Jan. 27 at the home a fraternity member.
‘There were a number of activities where pledges were being struck by fists,’ Williamson said, adding that while there were some physical injuries, none required medical treatment.”
The University of Georgia is not the only school under the microscope for a hazing incident. San Jose State University in California is under fire for their response to complaints by an African-American pledge attempting to join a mainstream fraternity.
Authorities said four white students at San Jose State University displayed Nazi imagery and a Confederate flag in their dormitory suite to taunt a black dorm mate and also attempted to hang a U-shaped bicycle lock around his neck.
The teens barricaded the dorm mate in his room on multiple occasions in harassment that started in early September and continued through mid-October of last year, according to the report.
Three of the teens, Colin Warren, 18, Joseph Bomgardner, 19, and Logan Beaschler, 18, pleaded not guilty in December and January to one count of a misdemeanor hate crime and one count of misdemeanor battery against their 17-year-old dorm mate.A fourth defendant is a minor, and details about his case have not been made public.”
San Jose State University officials are under fire for failing to respond to the incidents until five weeks after the incidents were reported. The initial incident was reported by the victim’s parents who saw racial slurs written on the boy’s dry-erase board when visiting him. The school maintains that the response time was within university guidelines.
Read more about the alleged hazing incident at the University of Georgia AJC.com.
Read more about the alleged hazing incident at San Jose State University at Reuters.
Legendary Hip-Hop producer and rapper J Dilla is remembered on his birthday. Happy Dilla Day. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
James ‘J Dilla’ Yancey is perhaps one of the most revered Hip-Hop producers in the history of the genre. J Dilla, also known as Jay Dee, emerged from Detroit’s 1990s underground Hip-Hop scene. The son of an opera singer and jazz bassist, J Dilla took the industry by storm as a rapper and producer. In 1995 Jay Dee partnered with MC Phat Kat forming the pioneering Detroit rap duo 1st Down. 1st Down was the first Detroit rap group to sign with a major record label (Payday Records). Shortly thereafter, J Dilla formed the iconic rap group Slum Village with T3 and Baatin, and recorded the group’s debut, Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1) in his home studio. The rest as they say, was history.
J Dilla went on to work with a myriad of underground and mainstream artists including Common, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, Q-Tip, Soulquarians, Madlib, Dwele, Guilty Simpson, Jay Electronica, J Rocc, Waajeed, Bilal, Busta Rhimes, Pete Rock, Guilty Simpson, De La Soul, Erykah Badu, Janet Jackson, Black Milk, Mos Def, Kanye West, Nottz, Hi-Tek, Quebo Kuntry, Pharcyde, Frank n Dank and Supa Dave West. J Dilla was keen on collaborations, forming a number of influential collectives. He formed a production collective called The Ummah, which was made up of Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and eventually Raphael Saadiq and The Soulquarians (with Questlove, D’Angelo and James Poyser and many others).
J Dilla’s cult status and tremendous success prompted him to eventually move from Detroit to Los Angeles in 2004. Sadly, J Dilla lost his battle with lupus just two years later. Born on February 7, 1974, J Dilla died at age 33 on February 10, 2006, leaving a seminal legacy of music behind.
J Dilla’s handprint is literally on so much of Hip-Hop music that one could listen to his music for days on end. Each February 7th, he is fondly remembered by DJs, artists, poets and those who appreciated his musical genius. While many pay homage to reggae legend Robert ‘Nesta’ Marley, whose birthday is on February 6, tributes to J Dilla are happening throughout the world as well. Dilla Day celebrations are being held in Detroit at the Fillmore and 5E Gallery, The Basement in Sydney, Australia, Miami at Bardot, DC at U Street Music Hall and Johnny Brenda’s in Philly. Other tributes were held this month in Paris, London and Los Angeles. XM Sirius is giving a Dilla Day tribute, with Ed Lover playing J Dilla’s greatest hits.
J Dilla was a prolific producer who influenced a generation of Hip-Hop and continues to do so through the release of music that has yet to be heard. On February 7, the Hip-Hop community remembers J Dilla. R.I.P.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, founder & editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
DeNeen L. Brown of the Washington Post is reporting that bestselling author Kristina ‘Zane’ Roberts, 47, tops Maryland’s ‘tax cheat’ list. Brown reports:
“Last week, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) announced that the $341,000 Roberts owes the state makes her Maryland’s top individual ‘tax cheat.’ The state, which has been trying to collect back taxes from Roberts since 2003, outed her along with 24 other individuals and 25 businesses in an effort to shame them into paying.”
The author of more than 30 books has been chased repeatedly by creditors over the years. Brown writes:
“‘Zane,’ the renowned Prince George’s County author who has sold millions of steamy novels, has been chased for years by creditors, including the IRS and the state of Maryland, according to court records and state officials.
Kristina Laferne Roberts, 47, who writes under the pseudonym ‘Zane,’ owes the IRS almost $541,000, according to court documents filed by the government. In 2010, the Treasury Department placed a tax lien on her imposing house in Upper Marlboro, which Roberts had bought for more than $1 million in 2004. She avoided foreclosure in 2009 after falling 79 days behind on her mortgage payment — with an outstanding amount of $22,457 — before settling the case with her lender, court records show.”
Zane is also creator and producer of two Cinemax series Zane’s: The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth, Zane’s Addicted and Zane’s Succulent Chocolate Flava II.
The United States’ first black president Barack Obama was sworn into his second term of office using civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King’s Bible. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
“The estate of the civil rights icon filed a complaint in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta on Friday to force Bernice King, his daughter, to turn over the items. King’s heirs agreed in 1995 to give up their inheritance to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. Inc., the complaint reads. Bernice King has “repeatedly acknowledged and conceded the validity” of the agreement, but has “secreted and sequestered” the items in question, it says.”
Responding to the accusations, Bernice King wrote an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here is an excerpt from the editorial below:
EXCERPT
“On January 20, as we observed my father’s 85th birthday and The King Holiday, my brothers, Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King, III, notified me that they want to sell to a private buyer our father’s most prized possessions, his Nobel Peace Prize Medal and his personal Bible which was used by President Barak Obama as he was sworn in for his second term in office and subsequently signed by him. I am absolutely opposed to the selling of these extremely sacred items and I expressed my opposition to my brothers. Although these items have been under my care and custody for the past few years, they have remained in a safe and secure location since my father’s assassination, and my mother’s death in 2006. After I refused to immediately transfer these items to another location at their request, consequently on January 31 my brothers through The Estate of Martin L. King, Jr., Inc filed a lawsuit {Civil Action No. 2014cv241929} to force me to turn these items over for the express purpose of selling them. In my opinion, there is no justification for selling either of these sacred items. They are priceless and should never be exchanged for money in the marketplace.
While I love my brothers dearly, this latest decision by them is extremely troubling. Not only am I appalled and utterly ashamed, I am frankly disappointed that they would even entertain the thought of selling these precious items. It reveals a desperation beyond comprehension. As Mark 8:36 teaches, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Our Father MUST be turning in his grave.”
END OF EXCERPT
Based on that op-ed, the gauntlet has been thrown down. Surely an op-ed will be coming from Dexter and Martin III. It’s a shame that the MLK children of a man that gave his life for peace, are unable to solve their differences without the use of media.
When I first started seeing articles posted about George Zimmerman’s call for a celebrity boxing match, I thought that I was reading one of the many poor attempts at satire made by an increasing number of The Onion knockoffs finding their way onto the web. Men that stalk, shoot and kill unarmed teenagers aren’t typically heralded as celebrities. When I think of George Zimmerman, who is famous for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, I think of a notorious figure, not someone who should be celebrated.
Imagine my shock and awe to learn that not only was Zimmerman really calling for a celebrity boxing match, but that people were listening. Rappers Jayceon ‘’The Game’ Taylor and Earl ‘DMX’ Simmons were very vocal about wanting to fight Zimmerman. It’s not impossible to think that there would be people lined up for an opportunity to fight George Zimmerman, a man that not only got away with stalking and killing an unarmed teen, but also clearly can’t fight based on his predilection for fighting women and a teenager – people he perceives to be lesser than him.
What’s more troubling about this debacle of a “celebrity” event is that its popularity reached fever pitch on the day of Trayvon Martin’s birth. George Zimmerman and DMX’s camps prematurely confirmed this celebrity boxing match, a deal which had not yet closed, on Trayvon Martin’s birthday. The only thing worse than the killer of an unarmed teenager with a history of domestic violence fighting a clearly still cracked out formerly iconic rapper whose downward spiral is continuing with all due deliberate speed is that this would be happening on the birthday of the teenager whose unjust death is the only reason that a loser like Zimmerman could gain celebrity and a drug addict like DMX could try and reclaim his fame.
Zimmerman continues to profit on the death of Trayvon Martin. If indeed he was just defending himself, then why continue the parade of shenanigans, the latest of which is this boxing match? The same need that Zimmerman had for relevancy which led him to try to be a police officer and fail, and then try to make himself out to be a hero by killing a teenager and then fail is the cult of celebrity that he has been chasing his entire life. In true George Zimmerman fashion, he accepts a fight with rapper DMX, a drug addicted criminal who is small in stature and nowhere near his prime and like Zimmerman, has delusions of greatness that he will never reclaim when living a life this completely out of control.
Who wants to see a murderous bully and a cracked out middle-aged rapper fight anyway? Not me, but obviously others do which makes this circus so frightening. The inmates are clearly running the asylum in a world where an alleged sociopath like Zimmerman and a troubled rapper like DMX (and the idiots in their camps) think that profiting on the death of a child by creating this spectacle is a good idea. The real victim of this heinous crime, Trayvon Martin, is victimized again and during the week of his birthday no less. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the world is unwilling to see black boys as victims and that is nothing to celebrate.
Nsenga K. Burton is founder & editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire, an award-winning news site that covers news of the African Diaspora. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual or @TheBurtonWire.
Hall of Fame jazz percussionist Max Roach was a pioneer of the Bebop style of jazz. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
“…the community was just fraught with music. You could walk down the street; You heard people singing; you heard people playin’. Duke Ellington says a wonderful thing about a Harlem airshaft. An airshaft was a dumbwaiter. You open up your airshaft and you heard people singing and playing saxophone. You know it was just in the air…” — Max Roach
On January 10, 1924, Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach, hall of fame jazz percussionist and composer, was born in Newland, North Carolina. At the age of 4, Roach’s parents moved to the Bed Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
At the age of 10, Roach was playing drums in gospel bands and by 18 was playing in jazz clubs. Roach’s most significant innovations came in the 1940s when he devised a new concept of musical time. He studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music from 1950 to 1953, eventually earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in music composition.
In 1952, Roach co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. This label released a record of a May 15, 1953 concert, billed as ‘the greatest concert ever’, which came to be known as Jazz at Massey Hall, featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach. Also released on this label was the groundbreaking bass-and-drum free improvisation, Percussion Discussion.
Roach spent the 1980s and 1990s continually finding new forms of musical expression and presentation. Roach was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980, the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 1984 was designated a NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor the nation bestows on a jazz artist, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1986, a park in London was named in his honor and Roach was recognized with a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1988. Roach died August 16, 2007 and in 2008 posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Akosua Report: Facts on The African Diaspora, is written by Akosua Lowery. Follow her on Twitter @AkosuaLowery.
