Symbolic Violence and Images of Black Women

Black History Walks,Talks & Films

Black History is longer than a month..

Symbolic Violence and Black women

June 2012

COINTELPRO: State of ISRAEL Racism or Genocide birth control & Beta Israel [Ethiopian] Black Women?

Ethiopian Jews in Israel receive a disproportionate number of Depo Provera prescriptions. In one African-Israeli community this has led to just one birth in 3 years. Depo Provera is an injected contraceptive that was banned in Zimbabwe due to its uninformed testing on black women and its side effects which include severe bleeding, weight gain and permanent infertility

Symbolic Violence and Images of Black Women

:: Red Tails: The Black British Experience Video

:: Avatar: The Breakdown Part Two then the Matrix Move Analysis !

:: History of Black Theatre, More Walking Tours !

:: How to Brainwash the Youth and Make them act like Fools !

:: What is Depo Provera and how does it affect black women ?

:: Conspiracy theories that turned out to be true 3/25: African Women in Israel and discriminatory birth control

:: Win tickets to see Harlem USA and $60 amazon vouchers

:: Heroic East Africans repair Fistulas

:: How to Keep the Masses Ignorant.. conspiracy, films and pirate DVD's

Red Tails, The Black British Experience Part 1

After 6 months of fighting to get it on British screens, Red Tails has arrived, but what of the Black British experience ? This 5 minute video tells the amazing story of some of the Guyanese, Grenadian, Trinidadian, Sierra Leonian, Jamaican and Barbadian aircrew who, 67 years later, are still waiting for a movie to be made about their adventures. Watch out for our future presentation.. How Black People Won World War 2

Black History Walks presents The Black History of Avatar, Movie Breakdown Part Two with Andrew Muhammad

Friday 15 June 7-9pm

Pimlico Academy

Lupus Street, London SW1V3AT

Tube: Pimlico (5 mins walk)

Entry 7 pounds Pay on the door. First come, first served. Previous event was packed out and there was so much hidden African history in the movie to be decoded and explained the people demanded more info ! Check out the 22nd June for the Daddy of hidden black history breakdowns.. The Matrix !

Margins to Mainstream: The story of Black Theatre in Britain (trailer)

Margins to Mainstream A History of Black British Theatre

Plus Drama performance and discussion

Saturday 16 June 6.30pm

Tube: Walthamstow

Call 07939 540 826 to reserve your seat and get directions

Documentary detailing the black presence on the British stage from 1824 until now with rare footage of African-Caribbean plays plus interviews with actors, playwrights and historians. Find out what happened to the artist who stated that the Arts Council were 'a bunch of racist bastards' and more.

Black History Walks presents The Matrix Movie Breakdown with Andrew Muhammad

Friday 22 June 7-9pm

Pimlico Academy

Lupus Street,London SW1V 3AT

Tube: Pimlico (5 mins walk)

Entry 7 pounds Pay on the door. First come, first served.

One of the most innovative and exciting movies ever, The Matrix broke records and led to new ways of image-making on the big screen. Since he first delivered his African historical analysis of this film Andrew Muhammad has been inundated with requests for repeats. These requests increased after his recent Avatar revelations. Be on time to get your seat. more info

Black Venus

Young and Old enjoy the history in Bank

Black History Walks listed Top Ten best guided walks in London by The Guardian...click here
Next Walks...

Sat 23 June 11am Elephant and Castle
Sat 23 June 2pm St Paul/s Bank
Sunday 24 June 11am Trafalgar Square
Sunday 24 June 2pm Secrets of Soho

Tuesday 26 June 6.30pm After work, walk in St Pauls/Bank

Watch out for Black History Walkers on the Great British Story BBC every Friday...find out more about the walks above here

Symbolic Violence and Images of Black Women

Thursday 28 June 7-pm

Pimlico Academy

Lupus Street, London SW1V 3AT

Tube: Pimlico (5 mins walk)

Entry 6 pounds. Pay on the door. First come, first served.

This event is about female representation and the black female identity. Dr Nathalie Montlouis shares her doctoral thesis and highlights black women as 'Anansy' in the promotion and diffusion of their own interests by content sharing websites. We will cover..

The African Queen
The sketel
The label of domestic violence
The diktat of the 'strong black woman'
Religion, make up and long sleeve
It's not raining men

..interactive, with short videos, photos and rare documents we illustrate and discuss what it means to be a ''black woman '' in the 21st century. This event is a preview of a major conference on black women titled "Rebellion and Compliance of Womanhood within the African Diaspora" taking place in March 2013 www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk

How to Brainwash the Youth and make them act like Fools !

Friday 13 July 6.45pm, Blue Room, BFI Southbank, www.bfi.org.uk Tube: Waterloo. Free Entry,first come first served.

Part of African Odysseys at the BFI

Frantz Fanon the revolutionary Martiniquan psychiatrist and World War 2 veteran, was an inspiration in the Algerian resistance movement.Author of Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of The Earth, his work revolved around the mental conditioning of the colonised by the colonisers to make them do things that were against their own interests. The term was not common at the time but he could have been talking about 'brainwashing'. In his honour, and as a prelude to the film Outside the Law we repeat our highly popular presentation on, How to Brainwash the Youth and Make them act like Fools, an in-your face seminar to illustrate how young people are conditioned via Hollywood movies, music, videos, computer games and advertising to act dumb and love it. The presentation uses popular mainstream culture and is interactive throughout ! More talks from black history walks

Outside the Law : The Heroic African Fight against savage French colonialism

Saturday 14 July 2-5pm

BFI Southbank.

Tube: Waterloo

www.bfi.org.uk Part of African Odyyseys at the BFI

Outside the Law is a 2010 drama film directed by Rachid Bouchareb, starring Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem and Sami Bouajila. The story takes place between 1945 and 1962 and focuses on the lives of three Algerian brothers in France, set to the backdrop of the Algerian independence movement and the Algerian War.The Algerian independence movement was heavily influenced by Martiniquan psychologist Frantz Fanon. They also hosted the US Black Panthers. It is a standalone follow-up to Bouchareb's 2006 film Days of Glory, which was set during World War II. Outside the Law was a French majority production with co-producers in Algeria, Tunisia and Belgium.

A portrayal of the 1945 S�tif massacre sparked a political controversy in France. In reviews the film was compared to Westerns and gangster films, and critics made observations about how the independence activists were likened to the French Resistance during World War II. Outside the Law represented Algeria at the 83rd Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

Feedback from the Spook Who Sat by the Door. A Previous BFI event

sisters Thank you to all at 'Black History Walks' for making it possible for me to see the incredibly entertaining and informative movie 'the Spook who Sat by the Door.' I was one of an almost packed house to enjoy a rare opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of brillliant sunshine on the afternoon of Saturday 26th May in order to attend this showing, part of the 'African Odysseys' series at the British Film Institute. This informative and entertaining 1973 movie was based on the novel of the same name by Sam Greene, and the screening was preceeded by an enlightening documentary contextualising the making of the film and outlining the many obstacles the author and makers of the film had to overcome in order to have the movie made at all. The plot of the movie revolved around the attempts of a token Black CIA operative, Dan Freeman, to use his CIA training to recruit 'Freedom Fighters' to the cause of Black nationalism. Based as it was in the Chicago of 1973, the film necessarily drew attention to the covert and overt methods employed by White Amerika to crush the struggle for civil rights - no wonder, then, that they wanted this inspiring and dangerous movie quashed! As a person of mixed ethnicity, I was particularly encouraged and gratified by the central role given to a mixed-race protagonist who had no confusion about his proudly Black identity, and I found the movie not just enlightening but moving and humorous too. I'm so grateful I was able to see it - thank you, Black History Walks! I look forward to attending similarly inspiring events! Charine John

What is Depo Provera and how does it affect Black Women ?

A controversial hormone drug, long opposed by several Black, Latina and Native American women's health groups, has found its way to Africa where new research has made some alarming discoveries.

In 2009, a health worker injects a woman with a shot of Depo Provera, a quarterly contraceptive injection, at a health clinic in Busia, Uganda.

In the just-published study of seven African countries, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that women who used the Pfizer drug Depo Provera - a hormone-based contraceptive injection - were twice as likely to acquire and pass on HIV as those who didn't. A higher risk was also observed for birth-control pills.

depo The study suggests that active promotion of injectable contraception in Africa may be fueling the spread of the world's biggest infectious killer, said Charles S. Morrison and Kavita Nanda, researchers at FHI 360, a nonprofit organization in Durham, North Carolina, that works on reproductive health projects.Some 3,790 couples in Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia in which one partner was infected with HIV were studied for the research.

For years, Depo-Provera has been targeted by health activist women of colour, who point out how disproportionately it is used with Black and poor women despite dangerous side effects. Depo users in the U.S. are 33 percent under the age of 19, 84 percent Black women, and 74 percent low income, according to a recent study.

In 2004, Pfizer acknowledged that Depo caused a significant loss of bone mineral density, and a study funded by USAID found that women using Depo had a three-fold chance of infection from Chlamydia and gonorrhea. Nevertheless, from 1994-2000, USAID provided 41,967,200 units of Depo-Provera to the developing world. USAID sends more units of Depo-Provera to Africa, to countries such as Mozambique, Tanzania and Nigeria than to any other part of the world.

"Depo-Provera is potentially life-threatening," warned a poster by the Racism & Reproductive Rights Taskforce in San Francisco. "Get The Facts Before You Get The Shot."

More than 140 million women worldwide use hormonal contraception, including pills and long-acting injections, which are the most popular form of birth control in Africa.

But limiting the most highly used method of contraception could also be risky, warned the FHI 360 group. It could contribute to increased maternal mortality and more low birth weight babies and orphans - "an equally tragic result."

This story is special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 October 2011 16:02 ) http://www.flcourier.com/national-world/world/6634-hormone-drug-sparks-outrage-in-africa

Conspiracy Theories that turned out to be true 3/25

This 25 part series highlights theories that were prevalent in the black community but dismissed as fantastic nonsense and paranoia by the white community. This article by Jonathon Cook, was first published in The National on January 6, 2010. For previous newsletter highlighting Apartheid South Africas' biological warfare programme click here

Israels Treatment of Ethiopians 'Racist'

NAZARETH, Israel // Health officials in Israel are subjecting many female Ethiopian immigrants to a controversial long-term birth control drug in what Israeli women's groups allege is a racist policy to reduce the number of black babies. The contraceptive, known as Depo Provera, which is given by injection every three months, is considered by many doctors as a birth control method of last resort because of problems treating its side effects.

However, according to a report published last week, use of the contraceptive by Israeli doctors has risen threefold over the past few years. Figures show that 57 per cent of Depo Provera users in Israel are Ethiopian, even though the community accounts for less than two per cent of the total population. About 90,000 Ethiopians have been brought to Israel under the Law of Return since the 1980s, but their Jewishness has subsequently been questioned by some rabbis and is doubted by many ordinary Israelis.

Ethiopians are reported to face widespread discrimination in jobs, housing and education and it recently emerged that their blood donations were routinely discarded. "This is about reducing the number of births in a community that is black and mostly poor," said Hedva Eyal, the author of the report by Woman to Woman, a feminist organisation based in Haifa, in northern Israel. "The unspoken policy is that only children who are white and Ashkenazi are wanted in Israel," she said, referring to the term for European Jews who founded Israel and continue to dominate its institutions.

Women's groups were alerted to the widespread use of Depo Provera in the Ethiopian community in 2008 when Rachel Mangoli, who runs a day care centre for 120 Ethiopian children in Bnei Braq, a suburb of Tel Aviv, observed that she had received only one new child in the previous three years. "I started to think about how strange the situation was after I had to send back donated baby clothes because there was no one in the community to give them to," she said.

She approached a local health clinic serving the 55 Ethiopian families in Bnei Braq and was told by the clinic manager that they had been instructed to administer Depo Provera injections to the women of child-bearing age, though he refused to say who had issued the order. Ms Mangoli, who interviewed the women, said: "They had not been told about alternative forms of contraception or about the side effects or given medical follow-ups." The women complained of a wide range of side effects associated with the drug, including headaches, abdominal pain, fatigue, nausea, loss of libido and general burning sensations.

Depo Provera is also known to decrease bone density, especially among dark-skinned women, which can lead to osteoporosis in later life. Doctors are concerned that it is difficult or impossible to help women who experience severe side effects because the drug is in their system for months after it is injected. The contraceptive's reputation has also been tarnished by its association with South Africa, where the apartheid government had used it, often coercively, to limit the fertility of black women.

Traditionally, its main uses have been for women who are regarded as incapable of controlling their own reproduction or monitor other forms of birth control, and for women who suffer severe problems during menstruation. Ms Eyal said she had been denied co-operation from government ministries, doctors and most of the health insurance companies while conducting her research. Clalit, the largest health company, however, did provide figures showing that 57 per cent of its Depo Provera users were Ethiopian compared with a handful of women in other ethnic groups.

The health ministry was unavailable for comment. When first questioned about Depo Provera in June 2008, the health minister of the time, Yaacov Ben Yezri, said the high number of Ethiopians in Israel using the drug reflected a "cultural preference" for injections among Ethiopians. In fact, according to figures of the World Health Organisation, three-quarters of women in Ethiopia using birth control take the oral pill.

"The answers we received from officials demonstrated overt racism," Ms Eyal said. "They suggested that Ethiopian women should be treated not as individuals but as a collective group whose reproduction needs controlling." When Woman to Woman conducted an experiment by sending five non-Ethiopian women to doctors to ask for Depo Provera, all were told that it was prescribed only in highly unusual cases.

Ms Mangoli said it was extremely difficult to get immigrant Ethiopian families to speak out because they were afraid that their Jewishness was under suspicion and that they might be deported if they caused trouble. However, women interviewed anonymously for the report stated that officials at absorption centres in Ethiopia advised them to take Depo Provera because there would be no funds to support their children if they got pregnant in Israel. This policy appears to conflict with the stated goals of the country's Demography Council, a group of experts charged with devising ways to persuade Jewish women to have more babies.

Ethiopians stage protest in Jerusalem against racism at Knesset and Zion Square, Tzipi Livni speaks

Video: Black Israelis protest in Jerusalem against racism in 2012. In 1996 thousands of Ethiopian Jews rioted when they learned that blood they donated was thrown in the garbage as it was considered diseased. The protests only ended after Prime Minister Shimon Peres issued an apology and promised an investigation

. The council was established in response to what is widely seen in Israel as a "demographic war" with Palestinians, or the need to maintain a Jewish majority in the region despite high Palestinian birth rates. In a speech marking the council's reconvening in 2002, the then social welfare min

ister, Shlomo Benizri, referred to "the beauty of the Jewish family that is blessed with many children".

Yali Hashash, a researcher at Haifa University, said attempts to restrict Ethiopian women's fertility echoed practices used against Jewish women who immigrated to Israel from such Arab countries as Iraq, Yemen and Morocco in the state's early years, in the 1950s and 1960s. Many, she said, had been encouraged to fit IUDs when the device was still experimental because Israel's leading gynecologists regarded Arab Jews as "primitive" and incapable of acting "responsibly".

Allegations of official racism towards Ethiopians gained prominence in 2006 when it was admitted that for many years all their blood donations had been discarded for fear that they might be contaminated with diseases. There have also been regular reports of Ethiopian children being denied places in schools or being forced to attend separate classes. In November a survey of employers in the main professions showed that 53 per cent preferred not to hire an Ethiopian.

Ruth Sinai, an Israeli social affairs reporter for Haaretz newspaper, wrote recently that the discrimination faced by the country's 120,000 Ethiopians reflected in particular "doubts on the part of the country's religious establishment about their Jewishness".

Jubilee and Harlem USA Competition.

There was plenty of excitement around the Queen's Diamond Jubilee but what's the link between the royal jubilation and Black history?To enter,

Natalie, actress/model is available for catwalk, photoshoots, hand and hair (natural) modelling

simply answer these three questions and you could win �60 to spend on Amazon.

What was (is) the purpose of the Jubilee?
Name one other ancient Egyptian contribution to the modern world.
Who was the longest-reigning monarch in world history?

Send your answers, name and address, with 'Origin of the Royal Jubilee Competition' in the subject line to info@golden-destiny.com

Closing date: 5th July 2012 Hint: All the answers are in The Story of Early Ancient Egypt.

New Film: Harlem USA is what happened when the subjects of a documentary came together "... to have a voice, to let the world know, just how it is between 110th Street and 155thStreet, from the East Side to the West Side." Harlem USA is a testament to the amazing African-American oral tradition still alive and well in the midst of institutionalised America.

Screening will be followed by an open discussion with Kim Powell a key member of the Harlem USA collective.Wednesday 27th June 2012

Time: 6.15 for 6.30 start Location: The Ritzy, Brixton. To win two free tickets answer this question..List three Caribbean countries where Depo Provera is used info@blackhistorywalks.co.uk

Independent Lens | Half the Sky | Treating Fistulas at Edna Adan Hospital | Video Extra

In this 5 minute video Somali and Ethiopian women heroically overcome odds to provide fistula repair to East African women. Win two tickets to the Trafalgar square walk if you can tell us what a fistula is info@blackhistorywalks.co.uk

Coming Soon..!!

Palestine & Africa: What's the connection ? Sat 14 July 6.30pm
African Superheroes Day
Medical Apartheid
The Black History of the Olympics
National Association of Black Saturday Schools Conference August 20 to 25 at Centerprise

To remove yourself from this list click Safeunsubscribe in the section below. To add yourself click here. To order BHW flyer as seen below email info@blackhistorywalks.co.uk