If Africa Can Feed The World, Why Doesn’t Africa Feed Africa?

Western Cape, African“I as told that in Ghana they can have a harvest every two and a half months, which means you can put something in the ground and two and a half months later something is coming up. That tells me that potentially Africa could feed the whole planet.

The western region of Africa could feed the whole continent. I think the western region of Africa could feed the world but it’s been divided by colonialism, imperialism, and neocolonialism. So the western region of Africa is not feeding the African nations that are starving. The western region of Africa can’t supply other parts of Africa with that which it needs. Whenever you have to get approval from Europe to feed fellow human beings, what the [expletive] is that about?” -From, “Rap, Race, and Reality,” By: Chuck D

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The Origin Of The Term “Indian-Giver”

“When the Europeans came to Turtle Island, they looked at it as land that was there for the taking. They had to kill a few Indians to get it but history shows that was no problem for them.

At the time the first Europeans came to the continental United States, there were at least three million Native people living here. By the time that the Europeans had finished their slaughter in 190, there were only 300,000 Natives left. Since then we’ve regenerated. There are about 1,400,000 Native people in the United States at this time.

At first, however, the Europeans- few in number- asked the Native people if they would share with them. They asked the Indians if they would give them a little land. The Native people had a great sense of generosity. They said, ‘Well, yes, you are our brothers. You share the same mother with us, so here is some land for you.’ After a while the Europeans weren’t happy with that. They kept saying to the Natives, ‘Move over a little, we need more land.’ Then the immigrants over-strained the Indians’ generosity and started forcibly driving the Indians out of their homelands. They began to take more and more land, often at the point of a gun.

The Natives couldn’t understand the concept of the settlers owning the land. They thought the Europeans were using the land as they did. That meant that other people also had the right to go there. Pretty soon there were conflicts because of these different concepts, and the Europeans began killing Native people. To avoid conflict many Natives simply retreated to more remote areas, hoping to avoid the new settlers.

Originally the Native chiefs had brought gifts to honor European men. They asked for their gifts back after they saw the killing that was happening. ‘You haven’t honored the gift,’ they said. ‘You haven’t shown friendship.’ This is where the expression ‘Indian-giver’ comes from. It was the Indian answer to the European practice of not keeping a treaty or agreement. To the Indian people this showed that the gift of friendship or land had no value to the recipient anymore.

Every bit of the land is sacred to the Native people. When the European settlers came across this land, they didn’t understand this sacredness. They didn’t respect the land, so the Natives resisted them.” -From, “Black Dawn, Bright Day” By: Sun Bear with Wabun Wind

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