The Western World's Assault on Haiti/Africa's Future

Week of 4/3

In our communications class, it is routine that every week we learn something new. It's always fun to anticipate what new things Professor Kopano will expose us to on any given class. This week, the topic of Haiti was explored. It is no coincidence that Haiti is the only Black nation to have a successful slave revolution, and they have since had to pay the price (literally). Haiti has routinely been robbed and violently overtaken by United States powers and the French. Having been pillaged of billions of dollars by the French, who demanded reparations from the newly-freed Haitians, Haiti has never had the opportunity to financially recover from these unfortunate instances, leading them to become one of the poorest countries in the world.

Though this was a particularly dark way to begin our teachings for the week, we later discussed the African Union and its Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want project. The project is accompanied by an adorable animated video showing all of the continents countries banding together and bridging their ideas.

The project's mission is so create a "An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena" according to the AU's website. I certainly can't wait to witness the future of Africa.

Telling the African Story

Week of 3/27

In class this week, we were able to immerse ourselves in the topics o media literacy and fair writing. We were tasked with reading different excerpts about what it means to be knowledgable of untrustworthy sources, biased media, and misinformation, as trustworthy news sources are the backbone of our democracy. In the TED Talk "Telling the African Story", the speaker discusses the importance of telling the happenings of Africa in their entirety, without including propaganda or pandering to a certain group.

Though Africa has many successes and triumphs that should be celebrated, there are also issues that could and should be solved. On the other hand, images of Africa, at least when I was growing up, consisted of nothing but poverty, suffering, and undeveloped areas. Perhaps the news world is trying to change the narrative of the African continent by highlighting Africa's successes.

New Knowledge and Discussion of Sankofa and Diasporic Legends

Week of 3/20

Photo of Gloria Rolando, courtesy of AfroAtenAs.com

This week in class we spoke briefly about our thoughts on some of the movies that we were tasked with reviewing for our midterm. In my previous blog post, I reviewed Sankofa, a gut-wrenching film about the importance of understanding your past to move toward a progressive Black future. It was interesting to hear my classmates' interpretations of some of the symbolism and themes in the movie, and I truly appreciated their perspectives. I missed the class while we were on spring break, as this is by far my favorite class that I'm taking this semester, and one of my favorite classes that I've taken while at Morgan.

We were also given a group assignment to complete that allows us to research the background of a prominent figure in the African Diaspora (my group was assigned Gloria Rolando). I very badly wanted to be assigned to research Assata Shakur, as she has always been a huge inspiration to me since learning of her hand in the Black Panther Party, so initially I was disappointed to be researching this woman I had never heard of before. But, upon reading more about her contributions, I was so excited to learn of her work as an Afro-Cuban filmmaker.

Overall this week was very informative.