BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Haile Selassie I 1892 - 1975

Haile Selassie I Biography

Emperor (1892–1975)

Emperor Haile Selassie I, worked to modernize Ethiopia for several decades before famine and political opposition forced him from office in 1974.

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

—Haile Selassie I

Synopsis

Born in Ethiopia in 1892, Haile Selassie was crowned emperor in 1930 but exiled during World War II after leading the resistance to the Italian invasion. He was reinstated in 1941 and sought to modernize the country over the next few decades through social, economic and educational reforms. He ruled until 1974, when famine, unemployment and political opposition forced him from office.

Early Years

Haile Selassie I was Ethiopia's 225th and last emperor, serving from 1930 until his overthrow by the Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974. The longtime ruler traced his line back to Menelik I, who was credited with being the child of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
He was born in a mud hut in Ejersa Gora on July 23, 1892. Originally named Lij Tafari Makonnen, he was the only surviving and legitimate son of Ras Makonnen, the governor of Harar.
Among his father's important allies was his cousin, Emperor Menelik II, who did not have a male heir to succeed him. Tafari seemed like a possible candidate when, following his father's death in 1906, he was taken under the wing of Menelik.
In 1913, however, after the passing of Menelik II, it was the emperor's grandson, Lij Yasu, not Tafari, who was appointed as emperor. But Yasu, who maintained a close association with Islam, never gained favor with Ethiopia's majority Christian population. As a result Tafari became the face of the opposition, and in 1916 he took power from Lij Yasu and imprisoned him for life. The following year Menelik II's daughter, Zauditu, became empress, and Tafari was named regent and heir apparent to the throne.
For a country trying to gain its foothold in the young century and curry favor with the West, the progressive Tafari came to symbolize the hopes and dreams of Ethiopia's younger population. In 1923 he led Ethiopia into the League of Nations. The following year, he traveled to Europe, becoming the first Ethiopian ruler to go abroad.
His power only grew. In 1928 he appointed himself king, and two years later, after the death of Zauditu, he was made emperor and assumed the name Haile Selassie ("Might of the Trinity").

Strong Leader

Over the next four decades, Haile Selassie presided over a country and government that was an expression of his personal authority. His reforms greatly strengthened schools and the police, and he instituted a new constitution and centralized his own power.
In 1936 he was forced into exile after Italy invaded Ethiopia. Haile Selassie became the face of the resistance as he went before the League of Nations in Geneva for assistance, and eventually secured the help of the British in reclaiming his country and reinstituting his powers as emperor in 1941.
Haile Selassie again moved to try to modernize his country. In the face of a wave of anti-colonialism sweeping across Africa, he granted a new constitution in 1955, one that outlined equal rights for his citizens under the law, but conversely did nothing to diminish Haile Selassie's own powers.

Final Years

By the early 1970s famine, ever-worsening unemployment and increasing frustration with the government's inability to respond to the country's problems began to undermine Haile Selassie's rule.
In February 1974 mutinies broke out in the army over low pay, while a secessionist guerrilla war in Eritrea furthered his problems. Haile Selassie was eventually ousted from power in a coup and kept under house arrest in his palace until his death in 1975.
Reports initially circulated claiming that he had died of natural causes, but later evidence revealed that he had probably been strangled to death on the orders of the new government.
In 1992 Haile Selassie's remains were discovered, buried under a toilet in the Imperial Palace. In November 2000 the late emperor received a proper burial when his body was laid to rest in Addis Ababa's Trinity Cathedral.

SOURCE: Biography.com

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Patrice Lumumba 1925 - 1961

Born: July 2, 1925
Kasai, Congo
Died: January 18, 1961
Katanga, Congo
Congolese prime minister

Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo. He was a leading figure in the Congo as that country established its independence from Belgium, which had controlled the Congo since the late nineteenth century. Lumumba's murder in 1961 has made him a symbol of struggle for champions of African nations' attempts to unite and to break free of the influence of the European powers that once colonized (held territory in) the continent.

Child of a village

Patrice Emery Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925, in the tiny village of Onalua in northeastern Kasai, a Congolese province (political unit or region). At the time of his birth, the Congo was still a colony (a territory governed by a foreign power) of Belgium. As a child, Lumumba attended Protestant and then Catholic schools run by white mission-aries—that is, by people sent to do religious or charitable work on behalf of their church. At the mission schools, Lumumba proved to be a fine student, even though the mud-brick house he lived in had no electricity and he could not study after dark. In addition, the mission schools were poorly equipped, with few textbooks or basic school supplies.
Nevertheless, Lumumba's teachers spotted his quick intelligence and loaned him their own books, encouraging him to advance. Some teachers also found that his intelligence caused them problems, feeling he asked too many troublesome questions.

Political leader

As a young man, Lumumba found a job as a postal clerk in the city of Stanleyville (now called Kisangani) in 1954. There he rapidly became a community leader and organized a postal workers' labor union. His activities were encouraged by local members of the Belgian Liberal political party.
In 1957, having been appointed to the position of sales director for a brewery, Lumumba left Stanleyville for the Congo's capital, Léopoldville (now called Kinshasa). There he soon became involved in an important political project. He helped to found the Movement National Congolais (MNC) political party, which aimed to represent all Congolese, rather than representing only the interests of a particular tribe or region. Lumumba's exciting personality and public speaking talents soon won him prominence in this party.

National figure

In 1959 the Belgian authorities announced a new plan for the Congo. They proposed

Patrice Lumumba.
Reproduced by permission of

AP/Wide World Photos

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to hold local elections that would lead within five years to full Congolese independence. During that year, Lumumba gained recognition as the only truly national figure on the Congo political scene. His persuasive, attractive personality dominated the political meeting called the Luluabourg Congress in April 1959, in which all the political groups who favored a unitary form of government for the Congo—one that would unite tribes and regions into one nation—attempted to establish a common front. However, Lumumba's growing reputation and seemingly radical views caused hostility among other MNC leaders. The result of this disagreement was a split in the party in July 1959. Most of the party's original founders supported Albert Kalonji as their representative, while Lumumba held onto the loyalty of most other party members. Lumumba was briefly imprisoned in November 1959 on charges of encouraging the outbreak of riots in Stanleyville, but he was set free in time to attend the Round Table Conference in Brussels, Belgium. The Belgian government had called for this conference as a forum in which all Congolese political parties could discuss plans for their country's future. At the conference, Lumumba's dramatic presence stole the show from other Congolese leaders. His efforts throughout this period were directed more firmly than those of any other Congolese politician toward the organization of a nationwide movement for an independent Congo.

Head of government

In the May 1960 general elections, Lumumba and his allies won 41 of 137 seats in the National Assembly (the Congo's legislature). They also gained important positions in four of six provincial governments. As leader of the largest single party, Lumumba was somewhat reluctantly selected by the Belgians to become the Congo's first prime minister (and minister of defense) a week before independence. Lumumba's longtime political rival Joseph Kasavubu became president of the republic with Lumumba's apparent support.
During his brief time in office, Lumumba had to face an unusually high number of sudden emergencies. These included the revolt of the army and the secession (formal withdrawal from the Congo) of the provinces of Katanga and Southern Kasai, which had been encouraged by Belgian interests and military forces. Lumumba turned to the United Nations (UN) for support, only to discover that it had no intention of accepting his definition of what was best for the Congo. It insisted on opposing the use of any force to alter the situation. Desperate for help, Lumumba asked for support from the Soviet Union to begin military action against the secessionist governments of Southern Kasai and Katanga. He was stopped in this attempt when President Kasavubu dismissed him from office in September 1960.
The National Assembly put Lumumba back in power as prime minister, but a small group from the army, led by Colonel Mobutu, took over the government instead. Lumumba was put under unofficial house arrest (confinement in one's home). Meanwhile, his political associates had gone to Stanleyville to organize a rival government. Lumumba slipped out of the capital and tried to make his way toward Stanleyville, but he was arrested by an army patrol and held prisoner in a military camp at Thysville.

Lumumba's death and legacy

Even after his imprisonment, Lumumba's reputation and the strength of his followers remained a threat to the unstable new rulers of the Congo. This was demonstrated when Lumumba nearly managed the incredible feat of persuading his military jailers to help him retake power. This incident only strengthened the conviction of authorities in the capital to get rid of Lumumba. They formed a plan to transfer him to either one of the secessionist states of Southern Kasai or Katanga (where he was sure to be executed) as a possible way of reconciling with these two breakaway regions. On January 18, 1961, Lumumba was flown to Elisabethville, the capital of Katanga. There, despite the presence of UN troops, he was picked up by a small group led by Katanga's interior minister and included white mercenaries (professional soldiers hired by a foreign army). He was taken to a nearby house and murdered.
The Katanga government made clumsy attempts to cover up the murder, but the shock waves caused by the killing traveled around the world. They created enough international pressure to cause the UN Security Council to permit the use of force as a last resort by UN forces in the Congo. This decision caused events that led to the restoration of a civilian government in Léopoldville and to the eventual end of all movements by regions to secede from the Congo. In addition, Lumumba's tragic murder caused him to be hailed as a hero and symbol for various causes after his death. However, he is best remembered as a passionate believer in the power of African nations to shape their own destinies and free themselves from colonial influence.

For More Information

Heinz, G., and H. Donnay. Lumumba: The Last Fifty Days. New York: Grove Press, 1970.
Hoskyns, Catherine. The Congo Since Independence, January 1960—December 1961. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Kanza, Thomas R. The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1979.
Witte, Ludo de. The Assassination of Lumumba. Edited by Ann Wright and Renee Fenby. New York: Verso, 2001.

Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Lo-Ma/Lumumba-Patrice.html#ixzz41BhG8UUS

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah 1909 -1972

 

Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president

Accra, Sept. 18, GNA – Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, whose centenary is being marked on Monday, was born on September 21, 1909, at Nkroful in the Western Region.

He attended Achimota School and also trained as a teacher. He went to the United States in 1935 for advanced studies receiving a B.A. from Lincoln University in 1939.

He also received an STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) in 1942, a Master of Science in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942, and a Master of Arts in Philosophy the following year.

While lecturing in political science at Lincoln he was elected president of the African Students Organization of America and Canada.

Dr Nkrumah continued his schooling in England, where he helped to organise the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945.

Then he founded the West African National Secretariat to work for the decolonization of Africa. Nkrumah also served as Vice-President of the West African Students' Union (WASU).

During his lifetime, Nkrumah was awarded honorary doctorates by Lincoln University, Moscow State University, Cairo University, Jagielloniaan University in Krakow, Poland, and Humboldt University in former East Germany.

Dr Nkrumah was invited to serve as the General Secretary to the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) under Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah.

He returned to Ghana in 1947 to take up the position but split from it in 1949 to form the Convention People's party (CPP).

In February 1948, police fired on ex-servicemen protesting the rising cost of living and the shooting spurred riots in Accra, and Kumasi and elsewhere.

The colonial government suspected the UGCC was behind the protests and arrested Dr Nkrumah and other party leaders.

Realizing their error, the British soon released the leaders. After his imprisonment by the colonial government, Dr Nkrumah emerged as the leader of the youth movement in 1948.

After his release, Dr Nkrumah went round the country proclaiming that the Gold Coast needed "self-government now", and built a large power base.

On June 12, 1949, Dr Nkrumah led the formation of the CPP at Arena in Accra before a crowd of some 60,000.

He was made Chairman, with Komla Agbeli Gbedemah as Vice Chairman and Kojo Botsio as Secretary. Other members of the Central Committee included N.A. Welbeck, Kwesi Plange, Krobo Edusei, Dzenkle Dzewu and Ashie Nokoi.

Dr Nkrumah declared “positive action” on January 8, 1950 in front of a large CPP crowd at a public meeting in Accra. He travelled to Sekondi, Cape Coast and Takoradi to repeat it.

The colonial government declared a state of emergency effective January 12, 1950 and prohibited the holding of processions, imposed curfews and disconnected public services in certain areas.

Dr Nkrumah was arrested on January 21, 1950, tried for inciting an illegal strike and sedition for an article in the Cape Coast Daily Mail and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Mr Gbedemah kept the party running and was in constant touch with Dr Nkrumah who was held at the James Fort prison from where messages were smuggled out on toilet paper to the party headquarters.

While in prison, Dr Nkrumah led the CPP to achieve a stunning victory in the February 1951 elections.

He was freed to form a government, and he led the colony to independence as Ghana in 1957.

A firm believer in African liberation, Nkrumah pursued a radical pan-African policy, playing a key role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity in 1963.

At home, he led a massive socio-economic development that saw the springing up of infrastructure across the country.

As time passed, he was accused of being a dictator and in 1964 also of forming a one-party state, with himself as president for life as well as actively promoting a cult of his own personality.

Overthrown by the military in 1966, with the help of Western backing, he spent his last years in exile, dying in Bucharest, Romania, on April 27, 1972. His legacy and dream of a "United States of African" still remains a goal among many.

GNA
Read more at: https://www.modernghana.com/lifestyle/1094/16/biography-of-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Robert Sobukwe 1924 - 1978

 

 Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924-1978), who helped found and led the Pan-African Congress, was a militant opponent of white supremacy in South Africa.
Robert Sobukwe was born in the South African town of Graaff-Reinet on December 5, 1924. His mother was a South African of Xhosa background; his father was from Lesotho and had been both a worker in the Graaff Reinet water system and a woodcutter. Like most Black families in South Africa, Sobukwe's was poor. With financial help from the local Methodist mission, Sobukwe went to Healdtown, a Methodist boarding school, and was an outstanding student.
In the late 1940s he went on to Fort Hare University College, the only such institution open to Blacks, and was elected president of the Students' Representative Council. At Fort Hare he also joined the African National Congress (ANC), the principal organ of Black resistance to race discrimination, and became associated with its Youth League. Begun by Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, and others in the 1940s, the Youth League challenged the moderate policies of older ANC leaders.
After graduation from Fort Hare, Sobukwe took a teaching position, from which he was fired in 1952 for participating in the ANC's Defiance Campaign, a mass refusal to obey apartheid laws. He then taught in the languages program of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
In the mid-1950s Sobukwe opposed the ANC's policy of allying itself with anti-apartheid organizations of other races. This led him and others to leave the ANC in 1959 and found the Pan-African Congress (PAC), which rejected cooperation with other races. Sobukwe was elected its first president.
Convinced that a direct challenge to the apartheid government would spark a mass uprising, the PAC planned a nationwide attack on South Africa's hated pass laws—laws that forced Blacks to carry identity cards to certify their right to be in areas reserved for whites. The demonstration on March 21, 1960, did not attract mass participation. But in one of the few places where the turnout was heavy, the township of Sharpeville, the police fired on the crowd, killing 67 and wounding hundreds more. Many victims were shot in the back as they fled. This event profoundly altered South African history.

 


In the aftermath of the Sharpeville killings, the government declared a state of emergency. Sobukwe and other anti-apartheid leaders were jailed and the PAC and the ANC were outlawed. As a result, both groups decided that because decades of peaceful protest against race discrimination had led only to intensified violence by the state, violent countermeasures were necessary. For the next 30 years both groups launched occasional raids and sabotage campaigns against the state. The ANC became more popular than the PAC among Blacks during this period. The armed struggle and other factors culminated in the government legalizing the PAC and the ANC in 1990, releasing Mandela and other leaders, and beginning negotiations that were eventually to lead to the end of apartheid, though the process was a bloody one.
After his arrest in 1961, Sobukwe denied the legitimacy of the judicial system that tried him and refused to defend himself. He served a prison term from 1961 to 1964. In prison he studied law by correspondence and earned a degree. Upon release he was re-arrested immediately under what came to be known as the "Sobukwe clause"—Article 4 of the General Law Amendment Act of 1963—which allowed the government to detain indefinitely without trial anyone who, having completed a prison sentence, was deemed by the minister of justice to be a danger to the state.
In 1969 Sobukwe was allowed to settle in the town of Kimberly but was banned—prohibited from speaking in public or being quoted and from participating in any group activity. He could not leave the Kimberly area; nonetheless, he practiced law until his death from cancer in 1978.
From all reports, Sobukwe was a reluctant, self-effacing leader who radiated warmth, generosity, and intellectual vigor. An instructor at Fort Hare reported that he was "by far the most brilliant fellow we have at college …. It is doubtful if Fort Hare will ever get the like of him in the foreseeable future." One of his colleagues referred to "his clear, incisive mind …, his glowing honesty …, his concern for the welfare of each of us, his willingness to assist in whatever capacity." One student of Black politics concluded that his activity was "wholly the product of a sense of duty, never an outlet for frustrated ambition."
Sobukwe's reason for rejecting cooperation with white and Asian anti-apartheid groups was that he believed that years of white supremacy had conditioned whites to be dominant and Blacks to be submissive. Blacks thus needed psychological independence. He admitted that "there are Europeans who are intellectually converts to the African's cause, but, because they materially benefit from the present set-up, they cannot completely identify with that cause." Real democracy, he argued, can come only when Blacks "by themselves formulate policies and programmes and decide on the method of struggle without interference from … the minorities who arrogantly appropriate to themselves the right to plan and think for the African." These ideas draw much from the "Africanist" philosophy articulated earlier by Anton Lembede. It was refined and extended by Stephen Biko in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sobukwe was aware of the danger that this would become an anti-white, rather than a more precise anti-white supremacy, position. He frequently stated that, even though Blacks must be independent of the influence of sympathetic whites, ultimately loyalty to Africa was the crucial requirement for citizenship in a liberated South Africa. Whites and Asians would have full rights, so long as they viewed themselves as Africans and acted accordingly.
Before his death Sobukwe worried that younger PAC militants, unwilling to see the subtleties in the PAC philosophy, would develop hatred of whites, rather than of apartheid. The fact that in the 1990s the PAC boycotted negotiations, announced a policy of "one settler, one bullet," and was linked to random killings of whites during the difficult transition to a post-apartheid society suggest that his fears were realized.

Further Reading on Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

Benjamin Pogrund's Sobukwe and Apartheid (1991) is a highly personal biography. For a superb study that places Sobukwe's life and ideas in a larger context, see Gail Gerhart's Black Power in South Africa (1978). Peter Walshe's The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa (1971) and Tom Lodge's Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (1983) are also valuable.

Additional Biography Sources

Pheko, S. E. M., The land is ours: the political legacy of Mangaliso Sobukwe, New York: Pheko & Associates, 1994.
Pogrund, Benjamin, How can man die better: Sobukwe and apartheid, London: P. Halban, 1990.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Copyright 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Nelson Mandela 1918 - 2013

Nelson Mandela at 95

Posted on 18 July 2013 by Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

The world’s most loved and the greatest historical figure Dr. Nelson Mandela, turned 95 years of age on July 18, 2013.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on the 18th of July 1918 in Mvezo in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

He is a South African lawyer, anti-Apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

Before then, Dr. Mandela was the first black South African to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative, multiracial election in 1994.

Under the African National Congress (ANC) government, he focused on dismantling the legacy of Apartheid through tackling institutionalized racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation.

Politically, an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as the President of the ANC from 1991 to 1997. Internationally, Mandela was the Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.

Born to the aba-Thembu royal family, Mandela attended Fort Hare University, University of South Africa (UNISA) and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. Through UNISA he graduated for his first degree.

Living in Johannesburg in the 1940s, he became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the ANC and becoming a founding member of its Youth League.

And after the Afrikaner nationalists of the National Party came to power in 1948 and began implementing the policy of Apartheid (Separate Development), he rose to prominence in the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign, was elected President of the Transvaal ANC Branch and oversaw the 1955 Congress of the People.

Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and, with the ANC leadership, was prosecuted in the Treason Trial from 1956 to 1961 but was found not guilty. He was also the first Black lawyer to start his own law firm.

Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the South African Communist Party he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) (Spear of the nation) in 1961, leading a bombing campaign against government targets. In 1962 he was arrested, convicted of skipping the country without permission and inciting workers to strike.

While still on Robben Island Prison, in 1964, in another trial with his senior comrades, he faced a trail on conspiracy to overthrow the government, and sentenced for sabotage to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. He and his comrades were incarcerated on Robben Island.

Mandela served 27 years in prison, first on Robben Island, and later with few other comrades went to Pollsmoor Prison and then Madiba finished his sentence at the Victor Verster Prison, Paarl. In the 1980s an international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife.

Becoming ANC President, Mandela went on to publish his International Best-Seller autobiography Long Walk to Freedom around 1995 after successfully leading negotiations with President F.W. de Klerk to abolish Apartheid and establish multiracial elections in 1994, in-which he led the ANC to victory.

Mandela was elected President and formed a Government of National Unity in an attempt to defuse ethnic tensions.

Furthermore, as President, he established a new constitution and initiated the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.

Dr. Mandela’s government introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty and expand healthcare services.

Internationally, he acted as mediator between Libya and the United Kingdom in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, and oversaw military intervention in Lesotho.

He declined to run for a second term, and was succeeded by his deputy Thabo Mbeki, subsequently becoming an elder statesman, focusing on charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, including other foundations which later emerged.

Madiba, as he is affectionately known by his Clan name, gained international acclaim for his anti-colonial and anti-Apartheid stance, having received over 250 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Soviet Order of Lenin. Many other awards & honors he received while incarcerated have not yet been found.

He is held in very high esteem in South Africa where he is called as Tata meaning Father; he is often described as “The Father of the Nation”.

Coming into office in 2009 President Jacob Zuma spearheaded the mission to have the United Nations declaring Madiba’s birthday on July 18, as the Mandela Day.

Every year on 18 July — the day Nelson Mandela was born — the UN joins a call by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to devote 67 minutes of our time to helping others, as a way to mark Nelson Mandela International Day.

For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.

“We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference.” – Nelson Mandela