The Arab Origins of Asian Muslims.

Every single Muslim in the subcontinent believes s/he is of Arab descent. If not direct Arab descent, then the illustrious ancestor had come from either Iran or Bukhara. Interestingly, the ancestor is always a great general or a saint. Never ever have we heard anyone boasting of an intellectual for a forebear. We hear of the progeny of savage robber kings, but there is no one who claims Abu Rehan Al-Beruni or Ibn Rushd as a distant sire.

Arab origin is the favourite fiction of all subcontinental Muslims. Most claim their ancestor arrived in Sindh with the army under Mohammad bin Qasim (MbQ). But, I have heard of lineages reaching back to Old Testament prophets as well. An elderly Janjua (Rajput), from the Salt Range told me of a forefather named Ar, a son of the Prophet Isaac. Ar, he said, was the ancestor of the races that spoke the Aryan tongue!
Touted as a local intellectual, this worthy was unmindful of the fact that Aryan was not a tribal name but a linguistic classification. Neither could he tell me how the name Ar, not being in the Old Testament, had reached him. He insisted this name headed his family tree and was, therefore true. The chart, written on a piece of rather newish paper had been, the Janjua insisted, copied from an old original. The original was of course destroyed after the copy was made.

The Arains flaunt Salim al Raee as their father — the clan being called after his surname. A great and valiant general in the army of MbQ, this man was from an agricultural family of Syria, so the Tarikh-e-Araian tells us. Closer to our times, the Arains are indeed acclaimed for their green thumb for which reason Shah Jehan relocated a large bunch of them to mind the newly laid out Shalimar Garden of Lahore. Today, they are a very rich clan in Baghbanpura.

The Tarikh expounds on this fictional ancestor’s noble background and courage in battle to the extent that he almost outshines MbQ. But it does not give us any source or reference for the rubbish that sullies its pages. There are two authentic histories of the Arab conquest of Sindh. Ahmad Al Biladhuri’s Futuh ul Buladan (written circa 860) and Hamid bin Ali Kufi’s Tarikh-e-Hind wa Sindh, translated first into the Persian as Fatehnama Sindh and then into Sindhi as the Chachnama (written circa 1200).
There are dozens of names sprinkled across the pages of both works, but no mention is made of a blue-blooded warrior called Salim al Raee. There are other histories besides these two works which also disregard this name for the only reason that such a man never existed.

The Awans, similarly, have a fictional ancestor called Qutb Shah from the line of the last caliph of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs. My friend Kaiser Tufail, an Arain, has had himself genetically tested from the US. He has no trace of Arab blood. His line comes from what is now Uzbekistan and has lived from early historic times in the subcontinent. The rest of us of this clan will see similar results should we go through this exercise. Kaiser had his son-in-law, an Awan, also tested. He, too, is singularly clean of Arab genes.
Most of us are the progeny of converts. In their need to escape the discrimination of the so-called higher castes, our ancestors converted to a religion that in theory claimed to profess human equality regardless of colour or caste. I use the words ‘in theory’ because even as the Arabs converted our ancestors to Islam, they discriminated against them for being “Hindis” as we learn this from Ibn Batuta’s own prejudices. And he is not alone.

Consequently, even after conversion, my ancestors, poor agriculturists, were looked down upon by the Arabs and even those who had converted earlier the same way as they were by the Brahmans when they professed their Vedic belief. Within a generation or two, those early converts began the great lie of Arab ancestry to be equal to other converts and the Arabs. This became universal with time.
The challenge then is for all those, Baloch, Pathan, Punjabi et al, who have invented illegitimate fathers for ourselves to get ourselves tested and know the bitter truth.

From:
The Arab Origins

Moses stole the 10 commandments.

To all Christians; Sorry God didn't give the 10 commandments to Moses.

The Hebrews fabricated what was already there and said god gave it to them. Here are the Original 42 laws of MAAT.

42 Negative Confessions (Papyrus of Ani)

I have not committed sin.

I have not committed robbery with violence.
I have not stolen.
I have not slain men and women.
I have not stolen grain.
I have not purloined offerings.
I have not stolen the property of the gods.
I have not uttered lies.
I have not carried away food.
I have not uttered curses.
I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men.
I have made none to weep.
I have not eaten the heart [i.e I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
I have not attacked any man.
I am not a man of deceit.
I have not stolen cultivated land.
I have not been an eavesdropper.
I have slandered [no man].
I have not been angry without just cause.
I have not debauched the wife of any man.
I have not committed acts of sodomy
I have not polluted myself.
I have terrorised none.
I have not transgressed [the Law].
I have not been wroth.
I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
I have not blasphemed.
I am not a man of violence.
I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
I have not pried into matters.
I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger).
I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
I have not acted with evil rage.
I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
I have not slain the cattle belonging to the gods.

 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=402887966458674&set=a.359505170796954.84512.359503814130423&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

Forgotten Slavery of America

http://usslave.blogspot.in/2012/02/slave-whipping-as-business.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASwhipping.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASgrandy.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Sbibb.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASkeckley.htm

http://medicolegal.tripod.com/weldslaveryasis.htm

http://medicolegal.tripod.com/weldslaveryasis.htm#p13-cruelties

http://medicolegal.tripod.com/weldslaveryasis.htm#p19-p

MNC evangelists targeting India.

Communists & Evangelists in India are both sides of the same coin

It is now for the leaders of the Pulayar community to rise to this occassion and find a prominent and dignified position in society. Pulayar community also has a responsibility to take up responsibility to stopping the trend of political appeasement for the larger interest of the backward community, given that political parties have only exploited the backward community for votes.

The educated among the Pulayar and Nadar community etc should come forward and take active interest in community affairs. It is high time pulayar community and Nadar community stopped being mere tools at the hand of communists and evangelists.

Communists had given the impression that they are the mother of all intellectuals and they, as intellectuals, had taken to hindu abuse to prove their intellectuality. The xtian evangelists had also abused hindu practices and beliefs to prove their superiority. It is well known of the abuse and genocide communists have made in countries like russia, china, korea, europe in general, and even in kerala where political murders have been planned with such precision and party support that would put even Nazis to shame.

Evangelists have used money to convert Pulaya and Nadar community claiming to be well-wishers of dalits, when they have hidden the fact that they have abused, raped, and taken millions and millions of africans as slaves to Europe and America. Evangelists have killed millions in south america and north america during the wars with natives there. In fact the Red Indian (American Natives) culture as well as inca, aztec, and maya civilizations were wiped out after evangelists took to genocide. What right do they have to convert hindu backward community in the name of love and peace after committing genocide all around the world.

Tribals of India were fooled into believing the church, today they have started to realise their folly.  Their support to the maoists who are raping tribal women and forcefully sterilizing them to prevent rape pregnancy under the cover of resistance activity and the silence of the church over these attrocities is only exposing the real face of church to the tribals of India.

Please visit below link for more details .....
Preparing for harvest....

European Roma descended from Indian 'untouchables', genetic study shows

Roma gypsies in Britain and Europe are descended from "dalits" or low caste "untouchables" who migrated from the Indian sub-continent 1,400 years ago, a genetic study has suggested. 

Gypsies have long believed they have origins in India, citing common Sanskrit words in their languages and photographs of darker-skinned ancestors in South Asian clothes, while earlier research has offered some scientific support for their suspicions.

Now a study led by Indian and Estonian academics, including Dr Toomas Kivisild of Cambridge University, has confirmed their origins in the Indian sub-continent, and even identified the location and social background from which they emerged.

The findings have been welcomed by Britain's Gypsy Council, which said it would help to promote understanding of Roma people throughout Europe. "We are Britain's first Non-Resident Indian community," said council spokesman Joseph Jones.

The study, which was published this month in the journal Nature, examined Y chromosomes in DNA samples to compare the genetic signatures of European Roma men with those of thousands of Indians from throughout the sub-continent.

Scientists from Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology collaborated with colleagues in Estonia and Switzerland to compare more than 10,000 samples, including from members of 214 different Indian ethnic groups. They were analysed to match a South Asian Y chromosome type known as "haplogroup H1a1a-M82", which passes down male bloodlines, with samples from Roma men in Europe. 

While there were matches with samples from men throughout the Indian sub-continent, the closest match and the least genetic variation occurred with those from north-west India.

When the researchers overlaid the closest matches onto a genetic map of India, the highest density was in areas dominated by India's "doma", "scheduled tribes and castes" – the low caste dalits or untouchables who suffer widespread and generational discrimination and usually do society's dirtiest jobs.

The researchers believe the descendants of today's Roma gypsies in Europe began their westward exodus first to fight in wars in what is today Punjab between 1001 and 1026 on the promise of a promotion in caste status.

Later, they left to flee the fall of Hindu kingdoms in what is today Pakistan, with many setting off from near Gilgit. 

The exodus to North Africa and Europe suggested they may have been early refugees from the spread of Islam into the Indian sub-continent. Dr Kivisild said the study had provided "evidence for the further interpretation of history of what kind of processes were triggerimg these movements". 

Gypsy groups in Britain trace their own roots back first to Egypt – where they believe the name "gypsy" comes from – and beyond that to India. Joseph Jones of the Gypsy Council said early photographs show British gypsies with Indian facial features and styles of dress until 100 years ago. 

He said the new study was helpful because it had scientifically confirmed the Indian origin of Britain and Europe's Roma community and that their common heritage should be accepted now by newer Indian communities in Britain. "We're not outcasts here. I don't care if we are associated with dalits – I don't live in a community where caste exists. I do feel a bit Indian, I've always felt an affinity with Indians," he said. 

Gypsies were first noticed in Britain in around 1500 and acquired a reputation as itinerant craftsmen, traders and horse dealers.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/9719058/European-Roma-descended-from-Indian-untouchables-genetic-study-shows.html

The Transatlantic Slave Trade.

...Over the course of more than three and a half centuries, the forcible transportation in bondage of at least twelve million men, women, and children from their African homelands to the Americas changed forever the face and character of the modern world. The slave trade was brutal and horrific, and the enslavement of Africans was cruel, exploitative, and dehumanizing. Together, they represent one of the longest and most sustained assaults on the very life, integrity, and dignity of human beings in history.

 In the Americas, besides the considerable riches their free labor created for others, the importation and subsequent enslavement of the Africans would be the major factor in the resettlement of the continents following the disastrous decline in their indigenous population. Between 1492 and 1776, an estimated 6.5 million people migrated to and settled in the Western Hemisphere. More than five out of six were Africans. Although victimized and exploited, they created a new, largely African, Creole society and their forced migration resulted in the emergence of the so-called Black Atlantic.

The transatlantic slave trade laid the foundation for modern capitalism, generating immense wealth for business enterprises in America and Europe. The trade contributed to the industrialization of northwestern Europe and created a single Atlantic world that included western Europe, western Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the mainlands of North and South America.

Also see:

http://indiantribescouncil.blogspot.in/2012/11/battle-of-blacks-in-usa.html

http://indiantribescouncil.blogspot.in/2012/11/african-princess-in-topsfield.html

http://indiantribescouncil.blogspot.in/2012/11/american-holocaust.html 

http://indiantribescouncil.blogspot.in/2012/12/forgotten-slavery-of-america.html

Warrior regent who fought with warrior tribals.

Pazhassi Raja is is celebrated as a folk hero even today as he is the epitome of courage and bravery as he took on the might of the East India company .

Pazhassi Raja is remembered in the history of Kerala as a brave warrior king who led battles against the intruding Mysore army and the East India Company's army much before the rebellion of 1857. The participation and assistance from people of different communities and tribes in his battles against the British army made them important in the Colonial history of South India.

Pazhassi Raja was a member of the western branch of the Kottayam royal clan. When Hyder Ali of the Kingdom of Mysore occupied Malabar in 1773 the Raja of Kottayam found political asylum in Travancore. Pazhassi Raja, the fourth prince in line for succession to the throne during this period, became one of the de facto heads of state surpassing several of his elder royals. He fought a war of resistance on Mysorean army from 1774 to 1793. On account of his refusal to flee and resolve to fight invaders, people of Kottayam stood firmly behind the Raja who had not abandoned them in their hour of misfortune. Raja's troops were drawn from ranks of the Nambiar, Thiyya and also the tribal clans like Kurichias and Mullukurumbas.

Pazhassi Raja (1753 – 1805) belonged to the Kottayam royal family which was based in the Kottayam (Malabar) region of the present Kannur District in Kerala. The Mysore rulers continuously tried to assert their power over Malabar and nearby regions. When the Mysore army attacked for the second time, all the three kings of the Kottayam dynasty and many naduvazhis (local chieftains) fled to Travancore. Pazhassi (who was 21-year-old then) rose to importance when he and a few young regents stayed back and resisted the attack. Raja led guerrilla warfare tactically using the dense forest cover of the region and sometimes taking shelter in the hills.

 He took the British into confidence and took their help in fighting the Mysore Sultan. But, soon he realised that the British had no plans to restore the Kottayam royal family to power. So he declared war against the British. Pazhassi was continuously at war with the Mysore troops, but later Tipu helped him in battles against the British army. With the fall of Sirangapattinam, Wayanad came under the authority of the Company. Pazhasi fought against the British army till he was killed in 1805.

 

Black gold

Monopoly over the pepper trade was an important reason for the colonial interests in the region. The rebellions could be seen as feudal resistance against the colonial forces. The assistance of rebel leaders from different communities and tribes like Edachena Kungan, Talakkal Chandu, Kaitheri Ambu and Kannavath Sankaran Nambiar and mass appeal helped Pazhassi Raja to resist the British army.

Timeline

From 1786 to 1793, Pazhassi fought with the Mysore Army to liberate his kingdom.

From 1793, he was continuously at war with the British. At first his battles were to liberate Kottayam. From 1800 it was over the issue of the authority over Wayanad. The Bristish termed this as the Cotiote War.

 

By 1801, a large British force of over 10,000 men surrounded Kottayam and Wayanad and blocked all passes that linked Wayanad with Malabar. The rebels went under-ground for the time being and Raja had to wander in the forests. Raja wanted sovereignty and ruled out compromise with the British even then.

 

A major landmark was the capture of Panamaram Fort in 1802. Edachena Kungan Nair planned the operation and was helped by 150 Kurichia bowmen under the leadership of Talakkal Chandu. In a surprise attack, they managed to kill the British troops but lost only five men. They also destroyed the whole fort.

 

In 1804, a large British army arrived and 1200 Kolkar were set ready for action. Thomas Hervey Baber, a cunning man was appointed as the Sub-Collector. A huge rising led by Kaliyat Nambiar and Raja's men in the eastern Chirakkal region was crushed by the British.

 

One of the traitors, a Chetti, found out where the Raja had camped and informed Barber, who went there with 100 kolkar and 50 sepoys. Raja and his men had camped near Mavila Thode, a stream close to the Karnataka border. On November 30, 1805, Barber's army reached there and in the short fight that followed six rebels were killed and one of them was Pazhassi Raja. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazhassi_Raja

Islam, Colourism and the Myth of Black African Slave Traders

Africans in the Diaspora have the challenge of rewriting a history that has been stained by years of distortions, omission and downright lies. One of the biggest challenges of rewriting this history has been the Atlantic Slave Trade, and one of the biggest sore points has been the idea that "Black Africans sold their own into slavery". A lack of information, a paucity of expansive scholarship and an unwillingness to have a serious discourse on Colourism as it existed in Africa even before European intervention, has contributed to this. Diaspora Africans are often quite naïve and will do anything to hold fast to the illusion that " we are all Africans" and ignore the racism that has existed among a group that is far from uniform.

In looking at the issue of Colourism I could not help seeing the links between the role of Islam in Africa and the role of Africans in the slave trade. The book, Islam and the Ideology of Slavery by John Ralph Willis is very helpful in looking at the almost imperceptible link between the enslavement of 'kufir' non-Muslims or infidels, and the belief that Black Africans were not only heathens but inherently inferior. This is not a new thought and certainly not one that originated with the Muslims coming into Africa. Several Jewish exegetical texts have their own version of the mythical Curse of Ham being blackness. Given the common origins of these two major religions, it is thus not surprising that both Jews and Muslims played some of the most important roles in the enslavement of Black Africans next to the Europeans.

In an article by Oscar L. Beard, Consultant in African Studies called, Did We Sell Each Other Into Slavery? he says "Even the case of Tippu Tip may well fall into a category that we might call the consequences of forced cultural assimilation via White (or Red) Arab Conquest over Africa. Tippu Tip's father was a White (or Red) Arab slave raider, his mother an unmixed African slave. Tip was born out of violence, the rape of an African woman. It is said that Tip, a "mulatto", was merciless to Africans."

The story of Tippu Tip who is one of the most widely known slave traders has always posed a problem for historians, especially Afrocentric historians in the Diaspora trying to find some way to reconcile themselves to the idea of an 'African slave trader'. The fact that Tippu Tip was not only Muslim, but 'mulatto' is vital. The common ideology of Judaism and Islam where Black Africans are concerned is certainly no secret. While in some Islamic writings we see an almost mystical reverence for Africans, especially an over sexualized concept of Ethiopian women who were the preferred concubines of many wealthy Arab traders and Kings, in others there is distinct racism. Add to this the religious fervor of the Muslim invaders, their non-acceptance or regard for traditional African religions, and the obvious economic and political desires for which religion was used as a tool, and we get an excellent but little spoken of picture of Islam in Africa.

Historians did not often record or think of the ethnicity of these 'Africans' who sold their brothers and sisters into slavery. As part of our distorted historical legacy, we too in the Diaspora buy the idea that all Africans were uniform and 'brothers', but the true picture, especially at this time was not so. Centuries of contact with Europe, Asia, North Africa produced several colour / class gradients in the continent, divisions fostered by the foreigners. This may have been especially prominent in urban and economic centres. When we combine the converting, military force of Islam sweeping across western and eastern Africa placing a virtual economic stranglehold on villages and trading centers that were Kufir, with the intermixing of lighter-skinned Muslim traders from the North and East Africa creating an unprecedented population of mixed, lighter skinned Africans who began to form the elites of the trading classes we can see how a society begins to change.

Some historians have tended to downplay, or completely ignore the potential for change in scenario. It has even been suggested that one cannot transplant a modern day problem outside of its historical context. However, we see this creeping problem of colourism occurring all over the continent. In the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique where European traders and administrators were encouraged to intermarry, the elitist, trader class was largely Mulatto and Catholic. If we look at the situation in Ethiopia with the age-old oppression of the original Ethiopians, the Oromo of indigenous Cushitic stock, by the more Arabized Amhara this too has its roots in colour prejudice. There were hints of this occurring in many other instances at crucial points of contact between indigenous black Africans and lighter-skinned foreigners or mixed Africans and the most significant of these were in the areas of severe Islamic incursion.

Many towns and villages converted to Islam because of the protection that the military banner of Islam could offer them in a changing economic, political and social landscape. But the more damaging result was the many light skinned, converted Africans, children of mixed encounters that now felt a sense of superiority over their dark skinned, black African counterparts. Colourism is indeed of ancient vintage. The truth of the matter is that fair skinned Arabs' racist attitude towards Blacks existed even before they invaded Africa. The evidence for this can be found in how they dealt with the Black inhabitants of Southern Arabia before they entered Africa as Muslims. Discerning readers and thinkers can look at this and many other accounts of this time and get a clearer picture of the inherent racism of this situation. When we combine this with the desire for African slave labour by Europeans it was no large feat for these often lighter skinned, Islamized Africans to enslave the black kufir, whom they barely endowed with a shred of humanity. And of course jumping on their bandwagon would have been those black Africans with deep inferiority complexes, who would have been only too eager to do the duty of the 'superior' Muslims in an effort to advance themselves. These facts are certainly not hidden and the patterns are everywhere, even today but it is we who do not like to see. For centuries we certainly have not been conditioned for Sight.

This leads us to another direct way colourism played itself out in the slave trade and this is in the 'type' of Africans who were enslaved. The biggest victims of slavery were undoubtedly the darkest Africans of what was called the "Negroid" type. If you look at old maps and documents by early European explorers you can note that the parts of the continent that they explored was divided by their crude definitions of what they saw as different African ethnicities. The regions of West and Central Africa were seen as the place of the "Negroes" which was distinct from Ethiopian Africans and even more so the lighter, more Arabized North Africans. We cannot say that NO Africans we taken from the north, but by and large most slaves that came to the West Indies, Americas etc were of the type mentioned above.

Beard continues, "In reality, slavery is an human institution. Every ethnic group has sold members of the same ethnic group into slavery. It becomes a kind of racism; that, while all ethnic groups have sold its own ethnic group into slavery, Blacks can't do it. When Eastern Europeans fight each other it is not called tribalism. Ethnic cleansing is intended to make what is happening to sound more sanitary. What it really is, is White Tribalism pure and simple." But the thing is that this thing we call 'slavery' never was a uniform institution. When people speak of slavery they immediately think of chattel slavery as practiced as a result of the Atlantic Slave Trade and apply this definition to indigenous African servitude systems, which bore little or no resemblance to chattel slavery. It is misleading to say, "Every ethnic group has sold members of the same ethnic group into slavery. It becomes a kind of racism; that, while all ethnic groups have sold its own ethnic group into slavery, Blacks can't do it" as it denies the complexities of that particular colonial, chattel slavery situation that existed between Africans and Europeans.

Servitude systems that existed in Africa, and in other indigenous communities cannot be compared to racist slave systems in the Western world and to this day we attempt to try to see this slavery in the same context. People bring up accounts of Biblical slavery, of serfdom in Europe and yes, of servitude in Africa and attempt to paint all these systems with the same brush. However NO OTHER SLAVE SYSTEM has created the never-ending damaging cycle as the Atlantic Slave Trade. West Indian poet Derek Walcott has stated his feeling that our penchant for forgetting is a defense mechanism against pain, that if we were to take a good hard look at our history, at centuries of victimization, it would be too much for us to handle and we would explode. Well I say we are exploding anyway and in many cases from bombs that are not even our own. We have begun the long hard road of rewriting our ancient history, of recovering our old and noble legacy. Let us not stop and get cold feet now when the enemy now appears to take on a slightly darker hue. We must look at the slave trade in its OWN context, complete with all the historic and psychological peculiarities that have made it the single most damaging and enduring system of exploitation and hatred ever perpetrated in the recent memory of mankind. Until we do we will not escape its legacy.

This is taken from:
www.rootswomen.com/ayanna/articles/10022004.html  

also read more on islam in the below links

 http://pedestrianinfidel.blogspot.in/2005/09/axis-of-islam-verses-of-hate.html

http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islam_and_Women

http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Themes/jihad_passages.html

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm

http://islammustbestopped.blogspot.in/2008/11/what-quran-says-about-non-muslims.html

Mother Teresa's Charity Frauds

Interview with Sally Warner - A witness of 13 Years of Medical Negligence and Financial Fraud of Mother Teresa's Charity

by Hemley Gonzalez on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 10:44pm ·

December, 17th 2010 - Kolkata, India
(PLEASE SEE THE PHOTOS AT THE END OF THE INTERVIEW)

Sally Warner, a registered nurse with a degree in sociology and a graduate diploma in social work from Western Australia, began working as a volunteer with The Missionaries of Charity in 1997. She quickly realized there was something horribly wrong going on in all of the children homes she had visited and volunteered in and soon after became a dissenting voice and critic of the organization, publishing her first book titled “Mother Teresa” in 2003 about these experiences and now currently working on her second publication “Mother Teresa: Sainthood Delayed” to be released in 2011. Sally had heard about my work and the facebook campaign: STOP The Missionaries of Charity / www.stopthemissionariesofcharity.com and after finding out I too was in Kolkata, a meeting was scheduled. The following is the transcribed audio of my hour long interview with her on this most disheartening subject.  More about Sally’s work: www.sallywarner.blogspot.com

Hemley Gonzalez: When did you come to Kolkata to work with the Missionaries of Charity?

Sally Warner: I’ve spent the last thirteen years volunteering and visiting several houses operated by the Missionaries of Charity, and eventually made my way to Kolkata in late 1999 and began volunteering in some of the houses in early 2000. Here I have visited and volunteered in: Green Park, Shanti Dan, Premdan, Daya Dan and Kalighat which I found quite awful, I lasted only a few day there as I thought it was very dangerous for volunteers with all the highly contagious cases of Tuberculosis, but I had to see it for myself and couldn’t believe it. Speaking of Kalighat, it is now closed for renovations which I’m sure you and your “STOP The Missionaries of Charity” campaign had much to do with.

HG: How many houses would you say you’ve worked in over the last 13 years?

SW: The following is a timeline of the homes I’ve worked in as well as the many others I have visited. I have spent most of my time in the children homes, there were some I could not deal with, some of the ladies homes, and others where patients were just sitting around and doing nothing, often in cement floors and lying in their own excrements, people drugged wrongly by the nuns and of course there is or should I say for now “was” Kalighat, where anyone could just walk in and immediately see an average of 50 men and 50 women laying in cots and basically rotting away.

• Trivandrum Shishu Bhavan  Sept- Dec 1997
• Visited Ernakulum MC Shishu Bhavan, and two other of Mother’s  homes for handicapped children
• Volunteered Royapuram Chennai  June-December 1998
• Visited and briefly volunteered Mangalore,
• Visited and briefly volunteered Goa
•  Visited and briefly volunteered in Vellore TN
• Visited and briefly volunteered in Mother’s children’s home Pt Blair Andaman Islands
• Chennai north –home for dying and destitute Women Feb-March 1999
• Visited home for dying and destitute Men  Jan 1999
• Visited home for handicapped babies Chennai north  April 1999
• Volunteered July-late Dec 1999 Civil Lines Shishu Bhavan Delhi
• Visited and briefly volunteered Home for Dying Delhi 1999
•  Visited and briefly volunteered Handicapped Children’s Home New Delhi 1999
• Volunteered Green Park 2001
• Volunteered Daya Dan
• Volunteered Shishu Bhavan – upstairs babies 100+ room; downstairs children’s room 100+ and handicapped children 40 plus- 2000-2002
• Volunteered Gandhi School 2001
• Volunteered Nirmala Hriday Home of Dying Destitute 2001
• Visited and briefly volunteered in Mother’s Calcutta’s Leper’s home
• Visited and volunteered for women in Prem Dan
• Visited and volunteered Home for Prisoners Asha Dan
• Visited and briefly volunteered MT Bentley Perth home
• Visited Mother’s establishments in Brisbane Sydney Melbourne 2006
•  Volunteered twice total 3 months in Cambodia Phnom Penh 2004, 2008
• Volunteered in Mother’s Home Bellevue Johannesburg 3 months 2007
• Volunteered in Mumbai Sept-Nov 2008
• Visited and briefly volunteered in Mother’s  home in Durban SA 2009
• Visited and briefly volunteered in Mother’s home in Pretoria SA 2009
• Returned to Kolkata and visited Daya Dan, Prem Dan and Shanti Dan, Green Pack, Shishu Bavan and Mother House

HG: What are your skills and how were you applying them in the different houses you worked in?

SW: I am a registered nurse and also have a degree in sociology. When I first started volunteering in Trivandrum and noticed some strange things going on with the kids I thought, maybe these children, since they came from a different culture, had more tolerance to some things that western babies do not, maybe they could tolerate hot milk, maybe they can cope with less food because they were stronger, eventually I realized when babies started dying that they in fact couldn’t cope with some of the things the nuns were doing to them. I began to observe that some of the basic educational functions were totally absent from the house, such as daily interaction, development classes, consistent and educational play hours and so on.  I tried to get toys out of the cupboard several times, since I believe stimulation is very important for children which in these orphanages are not being regularly touched or physically interacted with or let alone have anything of their own, so I found myself grabbing even spoon, buckets, glasses, anything for them to learn to use for themselves, but the nuns were very adamant about allowing me to do things of this nature on a regular basis.

HG: What exactly were some of the things you were trying to work on while you were there?

SW: It is extremely difficult to make any progress with the nuns. You can unlock the cupboards, bring a lot of puzzles and books but because the staff isn’t trained or the nuns do not encourage them to use them, they often just sit locked in these cabinets or given away to other people. Once complaints started coming in from parents in Europe who were adopting some of the children and had noticed a very low and poor learning ability from their newly adopted son or daughter, that’s when the nuns began to consider having some proper programs instituted. In 1999 in Delhi they reluctantly allowed a group of doctors from St. Steven’s hospital to come in to one of the orphanages with workbooks and materials, they then tested about thirty children for a play-therapy program they had brought with them and tested them again after, the average for this group was 60 DQ (development quotient), the average for a normal child is around 100, after exposing them to toys and educational material and giving them regular attention, 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon, and after 3 months, they saw the development quotient had gone up to 80. Then a year later, the nuns had stop doing the play-therapy and dismantled the programs altogether, and when doctors had returned to the test the children again they found that their DQ had dropped to 55 which is clearly a delayed development issue that could cause permanent damage for the child, so they immediately employed a play-therapist in Delhi to try and get the children back on the morning and afternoon programs.

In 2002 I returned with a play-therapy program to try and have the nuns implement it only to discover they had canceled the therapist in Delhi because they didn’t see a need for it. Some of the top therapists in the country are being turned down for their services, and this is simply unacceptable.

Another case of distressful neglect of course is Kalighat which is especially disturbing to me because as a registered nurse in Australia I often work with geriatric cases and others with severe handicaps that aren’t exactly dying but are going to be staying in the nursing home for the rest of their lives. In Kalighat patients have little or no dignity, for starters they don’t have names they are only identified by numbers, and all the women’s heads are shaved because of the scabies and lice which are far too common in many of the houses. What hospital do you know is infected with lice? These facilities are substandard at best, they rarely use warm water and with so many fragile individuals being bathed on cement floors, their ailments and deaths are instead accelerated.

HG: It seems you have been met with some indifference and resistance?

SW: When I started in Trivandrum trying to explain to the nuns and the staff about the right measurements and amounts of milk babies of different ages should have, and being basically ignored, (One of the superior nuns said to me: “I don’t read that stuff”) and this was the first of many instances where I would bring up medical and professional information appropriate to India to try and help them do the correct thing but after 13 years of being ignored this is where I draw the line.

HG: What would you say is the common theme of negligence in all the houses operated by the Missionaries of Charity in which you worked in?

SW: Anne Sebba, a British academic, who wrote a book about mother Teresa highlighted what I think IS the central problem with the organization, in one of the many incendiary statements Mother Teresa made over the years was that “education causes confusion” and so she thought education was unnecessary, and the prime virtue for the nuns within the organization was obedience, and instructed her followers to believe that if they were obedient, anything else they did was OK.

With this in mind, going through some of the physiological and operational aspects I would say these nuns have followed instruction quite well. And here are some of the details that repeated themselves far too often in homes across India and other continents:

• Donations being locked up, rarely used or plainly given to people who they were not intended for.
• Local staffed being overworked and underpaid (In India it is common to employ people to watch over babies and perform a lot of the cleaning and feeding duties for up to 14 hours each time for only $30 rupees a day)
• Milk products consistently being wrongly administered to babies and toddlers and in some cases causing death
• Insufficient and untrained staff looking over babies and children (Over 100 in a single room at times, with babies under 12 months of age who require a lot of attention)
• Questionable food, or brown food as you will see in the pictures below
• Malnutrition cases in children where the stomach blows up and the limbs get very thin and the hair falls out AKA Marasmus.
• Children who are handicapped, particularly blind children, even to this day in Varkala and Mumbai, they are not given any proper education or assigned any person who could teach them any language and as they grow older they become more and more isolated and after certain years of age, they will not learn to speak at all.
• The nuns in all houses begin their day with prayers and interrupt what would be a normal schedule in any medical facility in the middle of the day, diapering for hours for more prayers and other religious functions, leaving untrained and insufficient staff to cover them in them in their absence.
• Dangerous environments, with dangerous playground equipment and dangerous stairs where children could easily fall through and kill themselves.
• No one ever sees what happens after “volunteer” hours as volunteers must leave all the premises. I was able to stay longer periods of time and see what happens when the nuns go away and the people who are managing the place are certainly not the nuns. If you happen to cruise by at lunch time you will find only the staff. I stopped by one of the houses in Christmas day 1999 at about lunch time, and in this particular house there were about 120 babies upstairs and I was the only person in the whole building, so you had babies crying, stuck in cots and in south Africa you often had babies falling out of their cots and onto a cement floor and in Chennai they often fell out too, damaging their heads.
• People doing burn dresses when they didn’t know how, not using proper medication to stop pain, etc.
• Paralyzed patients dying of suffocation after being improperly fed by volunteers.
• Volunteers who complain being kicked out.
• Medical professionals being turned away or even being kicked out of some of the homes when they spoke up about the medical negligence or tried to institute proper and ongoing medical care.
• Malaria a case in point where the nuns in the house in Chennai patently refused to use fans or mosquito nets, by the time they were forced to use them by some of the local donors, it was too late for several babies.
• Typhoid fever, when I was in Mumbai was a problem in 2008 and 2010.
• Children not drinking enough water, as it isn’t consistently distributed and since many of them aren’t able to communicate I often saw children drinking water from toilets resulting in more diseases.

HG: So, you work primarily with children? It seems to be your central focus.

SW: Yes, initially I was interested in adopting a child, but the Missionaries of Charity do not adopt children to Australia because of Mother Teresa’s views on contraceptive use, and I’ve had nuns beg me to try and stop abortions in Australia, something I found rather strange considering they don’t respect me or my opinion in any other areas, and for them to come up to me and ask me to try and change the abortion laws in Australia is rather bizarre.

HG: I’m curious, how would they expect you to change the abortion laws for an entire country?

SW: If people are so silly as to believe asking away to random citizens can accomplish this, I would say this is indicative of the kind of relationship they keep with the real world. I know they have homes in Australia, maybe that’s the prime purpose of the homes there.

HG: What brought you to work with the missionaries of charity, starting back in 1997 and after seeing everything you’ve described thus far, why have you remained a volunteer with them?

SW: I came to adopt a child in Trivandrum, and I couldn’t do it because of the organization’s view on abortion, and they shy away from countries in which such is legal as a way of punishing their laws if you will which is insane to say the least. So I spent time with babies whom I really enjoy and I found it really distressing because so many of them were dying of preventable causes. I actually and stupidly thought they would surely change but of course they didn’t and when I reached Kolkata also found more volunteers who too had tried to change things but were ignored and even kicked out of the organization. For example, I met a Russian girl in 2000 who said I should protest, and so I said, yes, let’s do that and she backed out fearing of not being allowed to volunteer in the future. So there are a lot of volunteers who do not agree with these practices but don’t want to lose the opportunity to continue to return to these homes.

HG: So, knowing that this negligence was not an act of ignorance but rather an orchestrated and consistent behavior of these nuns, why then do you keep retuning to volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity?

SW: Perhaps because of my background, as I am adopted myself, I didn’t know my age, who my biological parents were, I was legally blind up to the age of 14 when I was able to get glasses, I have more empathy for these children than most people and I felt really guilty about it, so now that I’ve come forward, I am trying to raise consciousness, and back in 2000 there weren’t many dissenting voices. Others like Aroup Chatterjee, and Christopher Hitchens were the lone rangers and I eventually got some volunteers to write some letters to nun Nirmala, the then head of the organization about the usual complaints but that was pretty much it and of course nothing came of it. And now people like you who in recent years have been able to restart the dialogue and conversation about the ongoing negligence, perhaps there is some hope that things will improve or change.

HG: Do you have any knowledge of the financial structure of the MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY?

SW: This is perhaps one of the most secretive areas of the organization. I know that Nirmala, the former head nun has been reported in the paper saying that since Mother Teresa died the donations have actually gone up and at that time Reuters and Anne Sebba had also placed the figures at about 50 million USD coming in each year. I also met an ex-missionaries of charity and wrote down what she had to say, “laks of rupees in donations come in through Mumbai every day”, she had also said containers filled with supplies, clothes and equipment are often arriving in Kolkata from several countries including Singapore and never seeing the equipment being used or delivered at the homes but instead she had seen trucks taking away the donated clothes and various other products to local markets where these items were sold as “second-hand mother Teresa clothes, good quality” and so on, as well as second hand toys being sold on the sidewalks of Chorengee road.

I can’t imagine what the donors would feel if they knew this is how their donations are ending up. Also, Catholic Aid sends bulgur wheat and the Missionaries of Charity uses it frequently, which is not a popular grain here, one of the workers was able to take some away with him, and I was able to personally examine it and it was just awful. On Shishu Bhavan there actually is a store where they sell donated milk and I was able to buy some myself outside the facility.

HG: Why would an organization which receives millions of dollars in donations have to sell items donated to help people actually held in these houses?

Well, I don’t really know but when Missionaries of Charity are running homes (and they’ve got about 710 properties) I suppose one of the reasons might be how they choose to cover some of the organization’s internal expenses. For example, a few years back I visited the two homes in Australia and one of the nuns was arranging a flight to Sydney for a retreat, quite an expensive jaunt, another time the pope was going to be in Sydney and they were just pecking to flight there, it was about 5 nuns and when you start to figure the cost it can add up. And people definitely donate, I’ve been at Shishu Bhavan working and seen visitors come in and stare at the metal cots packed with babies, no toys, no books or educational posters, and it creates a very compelling picture.

HG: Shishu Bhavan, this is the same house that receives thousands of toys and boxes and boxes of educational material each year?

SW: Oh sure, even I have personally brought Kilos and Kilos of toys and they are never around when I’ve returned to work in the houses. I don’t know what happens to them, they are there one day and the next day they aren’t there anymore! You have to be there every day and watch the mysterious disappearance of all of these items, in Delhi they had many good toys donated by wealthy Indians and they either kept them locked up or gave them away.

HG: You’ve had sometime to speak to the nuns who are in charge about the negligence that you have witnessed and the way some of the health issues are handled, you’ve obviously tried to improve some of the conditions even. What has been the general reaction of the women who run this organization when you presented them with logical and viable options to change their practices?

SW: I have spoken to Nirmala when she was the general nun in charge 10-12 times, and sadly it is completely futile. When I brought the play-therapy program, the nuns were really offended and refused to do anything, the fact remains that some of them are in a very confused state, for instance, the head of Shishu Bhavan once received a “play-way” booklet I had obtained from the Loreto School which was a simple and effective way to teach children through play, but because of the organization’s stance on education, the nuns were unable to implement and therefore rejected it. I got a hold of an internal publication, a handbook on how to deal with handicapped children, and they do nothing of these rules, I looked through them in detail and it was a rather confusing program; unlike the play-therapy documents I had obtained from the Delhi pediatricians which were all very clearly detailed.

HG: Speaking of the issue of poverty, it seems that basically they have ignored several outcries for change and really have no interest in improving the conditions of their homes and the way the operate, so what exactly is the purpose of the Missionaries of Charity?

SW: Mother Teresa wanted wholehearted free service to the poorer of the poor because she thought these were people who didn’t know “jesus” so her primary focus was really to get them to know her belief, and in many cases die a “beautiful” death so you have babies who were dying, for example in Chennai and the nuns would say things like, “better they go to god” so you don’t know what to say to that when the cause of death was lack of food or poor hygienic conditions.

HG: Why haven’t donors been made aware of these practices? You would have to think any rational donor, regardless of his or her belief, if they understood what really goes on with their donation that these are absolutely unacceptable practices?

SW: It’s really hard to say because clearly children are not being tended to or educated properly, I took a lot of people to Mumbai when I was there to have a look and people cried, some people were quite disturbed by what they saw and they didn’t know what to think. I have been telling people for years to not give money to Kalighat, it will not help the men and women lying on the floor, but people completely ignored me and when they went there they were so distressed by the conditions that they couldn’t help themselves and gave money anyway, because they really believed that their money is going to improve the conditions.

HG: This seems to be a common practice with the Missionaries of Charity; they have these homes which are just in dismal conditions and almost as a museum to elicit donations from the gullibility or compassion of those who visit the houses. Isn’t it obvious what’s happening here?

SW: It has been written by Indian writers that of course if you got poor conditions then people are more liable to give money, so I was probably silly too, I thought if I brought stuff it would help, one time I had toys for every kid in one home but the nuns did not want to give a toy to everyone, and I couldn’t understand why. Weather is jealousy, or whatever, I don’t know, but they wouldn’t do it. And I suppose it’s hard to imagine people are so evil, and I suppose that’s what others think, you just can’t imagine that people could be this heartless but I’ve personally have seen it.

HG: There is definitely a blatant separation of social classes here in India, the caste being a case in point. Would you say a lot of these same issues exist in some of the other countries you’ve visited and worked in?

SW: Is generally poverty elsewhere, say in Johannesburg the conditions are slightly better because the laws are different, and I remember a local NGO which was trying to organize programs to help them function more as an educational center, confided in me that children looked after by the Missionaries of Charity were by far the most deprived children in Johannesburg and I would have to say after visiting several different homes in different continents, that this is true. I have visited homes in India, and the ones that are adopting children away are perhaps a bit higher in quality since parents from develop nations would seriously question issues of malnutrition and other diseases that are easily treatable.

HG: I think is fair to say that it is pretty costly and difficult for the average person who wants to be a volunteer to get to some of these remote and faraway places to actually help and see for themselves what goes on. You are one among many dissenting voices that have actually taken the leap of cost if you will, what will it take for voices like yours, voices like mine to be heard, taken seriously and used to hold these people accountable?

SW: I guess it has to be a numbers game. People here in Kolkata have said it has to do with the government, and when it changes some changes may come as the current one is holding it back. A good example is the dilemma of washing machines in South Africa, people donating washing machines and the nuns rejecting them, in India it might be a bit different as it is still common practice to wash by hands but in South Africa development has reached farther. People try, but how much can you do? Here in West Bengal government officials flat out told me: “what can we do to stop the Missionaries of Charity from torturing a few babies?” In 1965 the organization’s financial operation was taken over by the Vatican directly and not the local bishops or archediosis, so talking to the local “superiors” has absolutely no effect whatsoever.

HG: So even within the exclusive channels of the religious structure which this organization is governed by you really don’t get anywhere do you?

SW: No. I took the issues to father Huart and Father Abello both Jesuits who had been involved with Mother Teresa and the Missionary of Charity for a long time, as well as others Jesuits who are now dead. Sometimes I don’t think they knew what was going on.  Father Le Joly quite a nice guy who has written several books as well, when I met him he was half deaf and legally blind, he couldn’t really see what was going on, can’t blame him, he was in his 90’s. Father Huart who released mother Teresa’s private letters for the book “Come Be My Light” from the archbishop when he died, (letters which mother Teresa expressively wanted destroyed, obviously they were not) had spoken to me several times after I gave him a copy of my first book and refused to do anything about it, and said to me: “what do you expect me to do, take six months off and take a look at the missionaries of charity?” and I said, well, YES! But the answer was obviously no. Also father Abello, who I too gave a copy of my first book said he wouldn’t read it until I would republish it using his views on contraception. I also met the curator of the mother Teresa letters’ book and tried to get him to go and have a look at what was happening at Shishu Bhavan which is literally a two minute walk from the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity and he was not interested. And last but not least I too met the bishop of Kolkata when Mother Teresa was alive who had also read my book and practically slammed the door on me but not before saying “It doesn’t matter, as long as the donations don’t stop coming in”

HG: I’ve actually read “Come Be My Light” and I must say it reads like the work of a deeply and mentally disturbed individual, and it was quite shocking that the book was released by the Missionaries of Charity themselves, but after further inspection it was evident that the move to publish it from inside the organization was nothing less than an attempt to soften the blow and the severity of the content.

SW: That’s correct. Father Huart who had written several articles for theological publications had pretty much admitted there was a strategy to make mother Teresa seem as charismatic as St. Teresa de Avila who had the same kind of mental problems, not being able to find the particular god of her particular religion and the torment and agony people suffer from these episodes of what many doctors may consider to be mild to severe cases of schizophrenia.

HG: Would you say it is time for the world to revise and review the image that has been created about Mother Teresa and the actual work that her organization does?

SW: People like Christopher Hitchens who once said she was a saint for sinners, in this case sinners being some of the rich folks in our world who find it convenient to feel good about their deeds through these channels. And it is convenient for the catholic church, who came forward many years ago and expressed it needed an American saint, a figure that could escalate donations worldwide, and mother Teresa, although Albanian and an Indian citizen, in 1996 was granted honorary U.S citizenship, so they are trying to do all they can to continue to have donations flow through which incidentally have dropped off with the pedophile and child rape crisis of recent years.

HG: The Vatican is in fact the parent company of the Missionaries of Charity which is also the same religious organization that has paid $2.9+ billion dollars since the 1950’s in court settlements for the child rape and abuse epidemic it is facing, so how do we know that many of the donations sent to the Missionaries of Charity have not been used for this purpose?

SW: Almost all the money the Missionaries of Charity receive goes to Rome, but it is next to impossible to track it because they have refused to publish how much money they’ve collected since starting operations in 1952. The Catholic Church is trying to increase attendance and collections at all their churches. So the money for the thousands of settlements and court cases certainly had to come from somewhere.

HG: Given everything we know about the missionaries of charity and their operation, it begs the question, where is all the money they have taken and continue to take in each year going to?

SW: My toys went unaccounted for, the moment I left them at their doors, and these are just toys, so imagine what happens with money. I witnessed so many volunteers and visitors coming into the homes through the years and just handing over money, and these are the ones who can physically get to some of these place, so try to imagine what the mail room might look like.

HG: What is next for Sally Warner?

SW: While I’m in Kolkata for the next two weeks, I am looking forward to printing enough copies of my new book and hope it will raise some awareness and achieve some changes. Without the necessary changes, people will continue to suffer conditions which amount to a human rights violation.

HG: After everything we've come to know about the Missionaries of Charity, is change actually possible?

SW: I suppose there are some changes but not necessarily taking place at the Missionaries of Charity. It appears that people are being able to adopt children much easier and from many more channels without having to go through the missionaries of charity, so they could stop the whole program altogether, but you never know with these people. Today, they continue to misdiagnose and mistreat people with diseases that otherwise could be cured and preventable, so if they keep kicking people out on the streets only to have them return a month later, this endless cycle of senseless “help” will continue. It is very scary to think they are anything but responsible, I’ve seen their so called medical books and rarely do patients have names, often they are just numbers, so it is very difficult to understand who comes, who goes, there are no medical histories. And in places like Kalighat, as you know, the death certificates are all made up and the people who sign them aren’t doctors, and of course some of the burial methods which are directly against the cultural traditions of the deceased, and so on. So no, change is a very scary proposition for them and therefore I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

HG: Would it be fair to say that the world would be better off without the Missionaries of Charity? Surely there are many other organizations doing great work while conducting themselves with accountability and in search of solutions to the question of poverty.

SW: I actually believe the Missionaries of Charity are detrimental to progress, because people come here, volunteer and return home with a picture of substandard conditions for those the Missionaries of Charity claim to help which don’t have to be, this is 2010, it was probably the reality of the 1950’s when India had gained its independence and it was struggling in all fronts but for me the people living on the streets, the children anyhow, have a real chance at learning to read, write and learn new skills which they certainly don’t at the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa believed poverty was good for poor people and the world, she once said poverty is my mother and suffering is joy but one has to wonder how much of this she actually believed. She once also said she wanted to die in Kalighat, but she didn’t. She died surrounded by machinery and some of the best care money can provide, unlike the thousands of women and men who died at the hands of her nuns without painkillers or any of the other comforts she herself enjoyed.

Hemley Gonzalez: I want to thank you for your time and strength to continue to speak up about this. You have certainly echoed some of what I have been saying for the last two years and have shed new light on many more cases of abuse in many of the different homes operated by the Missionaries of Charity. And you have clearly confirmed what I have been alluding to in my work, which is that this was not isolated to one particular house but rather, it seems to be a rampant and inherent negligence throughout the organization, once again, THANK YOU and it has been a pleasure meeting you.

Sally Warner, Author / www.sallywarner.blogspot.com Interviewed by:

Hemley Gonzalez
www.stopthemissionariesofcharity.com

http://www.facebook.com/notes/hemley-gonzalez/interview-with-sally-warner-a-witness-of-13-years-of-medical-negligence-and-fina/178920978793009

Also read;  Mother Theresa - The Fraud

African indigenous knowledge system

African indigenous knowledge system expressed in proverbs, names and songs etc.are conscious reflections on specific situations, events and experiences in the lives of the people. For the African, observation and experience are sources of knowledge that have immediate practical results in such areas as agriculture, medicine, crime prevention and remedy among others. It is no longer fiction that,...our ancestors, whose main occupation wasfarming, knew of the system of rotation of crops; they knew when to allow a piece of land tolie fallow for a while; they had some knowledge of the technology of food processing and preservation; and there is a great deal of evidence about their knowledge of the medicinal potentialities of herbs and plants – the main sources of their health care delivery system long before the introduction of Western Medicine. (Even today there are countless testimonies of people who have received cures from ‘traditional’ healers where the application of western therapeutics could not cope) (Gyekye, 1997:26-27).

Although western scientific thought similarly acknowledge observation andexperience as sources of objective knowledge. It depends on the adoption of a linear monisticconception of reality, which goal is analysis and demonstrative procedures. Here understood,western civilization lacks the principle of self-limitation in terms of size, speed and violenceand has in the process killed more than healed humanity and the environment.The work argues that any civilization that claims immunity from error and confers onitself authority over other cultures is to say the least no civilization. Every culture has its basic assumptions about nature and the method of arriving at trustworthy knowledge of reality. It is posited further that a value system that aims at having more instead of beingmore dominates man and empties his being.The work argues in conclusion for a new vision of reality, a worldview that isholistic; ‘functional and humane, a value system which restores meaning and wholeness, not just in the African human community, but in the entire cosmos. Such is the corpus of Africanhumanistic value system, the oral corpus of African indigenous knowledge system thatensues concern, care, co-operation and co-existence and ensures sustainable development.(ii)

African Culture:

Culture, like every other word in common use, can be variously defined. It entails a people’s integrative conceptual framework of reality. It is the totality of indigenousknowledge and behaviour, ideas and objects, that constitutes the common heritage of a people. This understanding of culture so described means a people’s world-view or outlook,a conceptual model of reality that enables a people to develop a strong sense of belonging toa community of shared beliefs i.e. religion, politics, economics arts, morals, science and philosophy etc.Understood as such, African indigenous knowledge system is the outlook of an African on the created world. It is the African conception of reality in its totality and fromwhich every other life index find its bearing. It is a product of the African experience in theworld as distinguished from the experiences of other peoples. Such distinction, properlydefined, constitute what is described as the African mindset, which, its modes of perception,its normative theories and social organizations contra-distinguish the western modes of thought.The African reality has a unitary view, so, man is man because of other men, and lifeis only life with others.

Unlike the western civilization of analysis, mathematics andmechanics which translates to the individualistic conception of man, the African treasuresmoral and spiritual well being which quality of human life find self fulfilment in thecommunity. In what appears to be a summation of the corpus of African cultural identity asdistinguished from the west, Ezekiel Mphahlele writes: Africans gravitate toward people, not toward things as Europeans do… External nature exists as a symbol of the deeper meaning of life. It is not thereto be tamed or be looked at for any lofty purpose, but to yield what it can for man’s subsistence (Mphahlele, 1972:112).This understandable element of African culture most obviously defines in very positive way how the African relates with and uses nature. Man and nature are important to each other although, nature exists for the good of man and remains so. When therefore man construes his leadership of nature as a manipulator who dominates nature, he destroys himself and the entire earth. This is not in the character of African culture, under guarded by the philosophy is holism; man is what he is because he lives in the company of others and in harmony with nature. In this characteristic African thinking, any conception of our environment that perceives only ourselves, and our dispositions is necessarily flawed from the point of view of essential human nature. This position suggests that reality is culture bound. This is what K. C. Anyanwu calls Cultural Standpoints.

Generally, he says:there have been cultures that developed the religious or the spiritual aspect of life, or the material aspect of it. But no culture seems to have developed the spiritual and material aspects of life all at the same time (Anyanwu, 1983:55)The reason here is that, the manner in which each culture consciously or unconsciously approaches the contradictory factors of human experience would determine its mode of thought and normative theories. So it is that the western, Eastern, Asian, and African culture differ from each other according to how each of them approach the duality of experience i.e. the contradiction between the self and the world, the contradictions we experience in life, the contradiction between freedom and determinism, reason and sentiment, the one and the many, individuality and universality arise from self-contradiction. This duality of human experience more readily find expression in the thought of the westerner whose cultural assumption posits that the subject and object are two separate entities, hence the self and the world body and mind are two separate entities. K. C. Anyanwu further posits that: The west reduces the duality of experience to a dualism, that is, to two incompatible realities. The world is said to exist independent of the ego and theego to exist independent of the world. Man is separated from nature on the one hand and subordinated to material process on the other (Ibid, 58).This typical expression of the western mind-set promotes and protects an ideology of either/or theory of reality which today is found in the subjective and objective divisions of reality prevalent in the western culture. Thus, reality for the west is subjective or objective, mental or material, empirical or rational, and scientific or metaphysical.

The African mind-set, for which culture is holistic makes no such clear-cut distinction between the ego and the world, and assumes that man is inseparable from nature. Like Protagoras of Abdera, the self for the African is the centre of the world, it animates the world, and the spirit or mind becomes in some way the spirit or mind of the world. Reality in here said to depend on personal experience, and the world has meaning, order and unity by virtue of the living experience of the ego.It must be restated here that human experience is the determinant of our standpoints. That is why the European or western mindset approaches and promotes reality in a way thatis diametrically opposed to the African mindset. Thus, science, that is, material science is nothing but the manner which the European culture intellectually perceives the world, and that the materialistic and rationalistic assumptions governing it did not originate in all cultures. Science in this context is a religion. But for the non-western cultures (African) whose assumptions are not that, the real is the material process in space and time, science is not a religion, not a spiritual necessity, but a tool borrowed from the west. This tool can be learned, but the materialistic spirit governing the scientific impulse still remains the prerogative of the western culture. This is precisely the point at which a distinction can be made in favour of the African spirit which is developmental in content as against the western spirit which is individualistic, materialistic, and hence dehumanizing. For the African, natural events and human actions affect human experience. Argued as existentialism in western philosophical tradition, the Africans identify such literary goal as that of humanism, i.e. an orientation to improve the conditions of man. Obviously the difference between western, scientific thought and African culture, is clear.

It thus amount to naked ignorance to assume knowledge of a culture from without. One thing that comes out clearly is the direction of each of these two cultural worlds in respect of development. The western scientific thought no doubt promotes growth but excludes development while the African cultural heritage is essentially developmental. This is, however, not to define culture as specific mode of thought in the sense in which this is synonymous with a biologically determined epistemological stance. The point at issue is that, man as a thinker, everywhere in the world, seeks an understanding of nature and the events of experience. While one particular group may wish to understand nature as it physically functions, another may seek an understanding of how such natural functions and human actions relate to and affect human existence. So, while not slipping back into the conceptual errors of the likes of Anyanwu and Senghor in arguing that African metaphysics and epistemology are unique because they result from a peculiar biological species of a racially distinct mind-set, it suffices to say here that, what truly defines African intellectual culture is communal justice, which relates experience to human existence, (not necessarily a religious one), to nature. Its goal is the search for interpretations meant to show how natural events and human action affect human existence; to improve the conditions of man.

It is thus argued here that scientific alternative is neither superior nor inferior to African humanism. Rather, they are two distinct cultural endeavors, and each is valid and inevitable for human development. But this is only to the extent that the two spheres interplay, which activity, thescientific endeavour is subordinated to serve the human sphere. Such is perhaps why Oluwole states unequivocally that: interest and existence, a vast and thorough knowledge of the nature of man and our experience are imperative while the terms in which factual knowledge and their understanding are expressed are not determined in any apriority fashion, no interpreter should feel safe threading on undefined, unanalyzed, or unknown ground (Oluwole, 1996: 121).It may be argued here that, the western pursuit of science has yielded results that no nation in the world can dismiss or ignore if that nation truly wants development. So also the African pursuit of humanism as a concern for human behavior and existence is its greatest cultural heritage to the whole world. If it is underplayed and ignored because it does not follow the fashion of science, then we misunderstand it and so miss the important better half of what it makes human existence meaningful. The two are necessary for human development. African Humanistic Heritage Africa, it must be said, has bestowed to the world a humanistic heritage, which the entire world order could only ignore to its peril. It is sensitive to human feeling, proceeding from a mind-set unique to Africans, and largely existent in literary works such as oral traditions; proverbs, names, folklore and songs among others, but without identical beliefs about every aspect of human life and experience. This humanistic spirit is foundational to everything African: whether it is politics, religion, economics or social relationship, there is an acknowledgement of the unique personality of the Africans whose family and kinship values, along with their cosmology andhistorical evolution should be taken into consideration

China’s first dynasty and Emperor were Africoid or of Black origin

China’s first dynasty and Emperor were Africoid or of Black origins. Founded by King T’ang or Ta, the earliest documented rulership in China was the Shang or Chiang dynasty ( 1500-1000 B.C ).

The Shang were credited with unifying China’s early elements to form their first civillization. The Shang were given the name Nakhi, Na meaning Black and Khi meaning Man.

The first Chinese Emperor, the legendary Fu-Hsi (2953-2838 B.C) was a wooly haired Black man.

Among his credits are establishing government and originating social institutions as well as cultural inventions.

He is said too, to be the originator of the I-Ching, the Book of Change.It is among the oldest and most revered system of philosophy. Emperor Hung Wu was founder of the great Ming dynasty of China.

He was of African (Sudanese) and Mongolian decent and was also a Muslim. The skills that set the foundation for Shaolin Kung Fu decend from India and Africoid origins.

Even in the White Garment Hall of the Shaolin Monastery in Honan ( Hunan) Province of China, there are tow 12 foot long paintings of Chinese and Africoid ( Black) Shaolin Monks trainning in Kung Fu (Boxing) skills together.

Although not promoted ( and somewhat hidden ) it shows striking evidence of the deep interrelation of Africa, the martial arts, and Asia.

The Jewish Myth

Now, let us starting with the terms ” Jew” we see that in the 1980 Jewish Almanac we read: “Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew.” The word “Jew” never referred to the Israelites in general. It is related to the tribe of Judah–and to the Southern Hebrew Kingdom of Judah/Judea after the death of Solomon. The Northern Kingdom (or Kingdom of Israel) evolved into the Samaritans. So Jesus was a Jew. Abraham, Moses, etc. were not Jewish.The Invention of the Jewish People And we must hold on to this when discussing the contemporary state of Israel and historical Israel. Just like Modern Ghana and Ancient Ghana, were not related. Actually the entire notion of a Jewish nation is largely a myth. Judaism as a religion is one thing but the notion of a connected Jewish people who went into 2500 year exile and still retain that genetic-cultural identity is nothing short of a national myth. A myth which piggybacked off of a holocaust to create the pseudo-state called Israel. ( See Invention of the Jewish People – Shlomo Sand).

There is no serious scholar contesting the conversion of Europeans and Russians (Khazars) to Judaism prior to the spreading of Christianity during the 8th century. This conversion of Germans, Russians and many other people from Europe have added to the original Jews and today what we see as Jews are actually mostly European converts. So the first red flag in this conflict is how could people from Europe come to the hot Middle East and file a 2000 year claim of “right to return.” Some may have faint genetic connections to “true Jews” but you will find Italian people with Berber bloodlines. Moreover you will find the Lemba people of Southern Africa have even more “Jewishness” in their DNA than European Jews.

Palestinian people have not been known for any crimes against their Jewish neighbors until the 1920s when Eastern European and Russian Ashkenazi Jews started to descend on Palestine with the idea that that they were going to return to their “ancient roots”; something which was all part of the planned national mythology since Eastern European Jews and Russians never had any roots in the Levant.[5]

DNA evidence shows that populations in the region have been relatively stable stable for the last 2000 years.Which means that, regardless of what people there called themselves, the modern indigenous people of the region (ie those called Palestinians today) are direct descendants of Hebraic and Canaanite peoples (albeit converted to Islam and Arabized). The same cannot necessarily be said for European Jews.

To put this crisis in another context, can you imagine Nigerian Muslims moving to Saudi Arabia and claiming it as their original land while displacing native Christian Arabs and having more rights than these natives? How are we suppose to honestly belive that white skin red-headed people with cowboy hats have anything to do with the Afro-Asiatic people of Ancient Israel? These are the realities which cause so much debate in African-Diaspora communities. The entire notion of the Khzar ancestry of the European Jew is a study gaining great momentum. But where it becomes vulgar is when White Jews hold themselves up as the original and orthodoxy of Judaism while denying Africans any authentic claim to Jewish heritage.

Zionism is a specific manifestation of white-supremacy and it is the most brutal form of neocolonialism. It is a racist opportunistic political ideology of White Jewish atheist who capitalized on both the horrors of the Jewish holocaust in Europe and the Biblical story of God’s promise to the nation of Ancient Israel. It is both arrogant and the highest form of racial supremacy: God has given us, White Jews, someone else’s land and we have the right to kill the natives where they stand. Does Apartheid Israel today have a right to exist?

 

Belmoun Ibolelé

 

 

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Tribes - People who are in peace with themselves

There was a time in my life I looked down on anybody who didn't procure a Western education, eat western food, speak western language, wear western style of clothing.....

 Thus, Non European people didn't seem to have all together.. This bull shit was forced fed to me during my younger years up until I started college.. Now, I am looking at people who are living in their natural habitat.. I say to myself, "these people are in peace with themselves".. They get everything they need from nature.. They are indeed smart and cultivated people..

Humanism is buried so deeply in the African psyche that though the raping and pillaging of the African continent in the wake of the slave trade, colonialism, western expansionism and Christian and Islamic evangelism have left contemporary Africa surely wounded, these forces have not succeeded in destroying the humanistic world view of Africans. African communalism is here offered An Ethic of Sustainable Development an alternative axiology to the men and women who today hunger and taste for meaning, who want progress in all regions of human endeavour. This humanism speaks of human development as the promotion of the good of people, every person and the whole person.

~Pawol ginen pou zanzet nou yo. Afriken se L'ymanite'