RBG Afrikan- Centered Cultural Development and Education

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's Purpose:
This Educational Program and Research Project is Dedicated to Further Building the Hip Hop--Black Liberation Movement Connection by Integrating Conscious Digital Edutainment with A Scholarly Self Directed Learning Environment.

Welcome to one of the baddest EduTainment Resources on the Web. A one-stop-shop for education,consciousness raising, entertainment and liberation. And the nicest thing about it is that you can become a contributor. Just start out by reading this overview and learning how things work. You can play a video right within this start page and even browse to it's music. Or turn on an audio playlist to facilitate your browsing. Tons of other options, too numerous to mention here are also right at you finger tips. Ride it however you like, it's all good. Once you get going, check out a Multi-Media Article that interests you and make a comment. I, RBG Street Scholar-Your Zine author, editor and guru will respond. The aforementioned approach is a kol gateway to doing bigger and better things in and with the Communiversity.

WHAT IS RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK AT ZIMBIO ALL ABOUT?

It's about creating and maintaining the best "Afri-Conscious Cyber EduTainment Portal / Communiversity on the Web".

It's about saving time doing study, learning / teaching together and having madd fun doing it.
The merticulously researched choice of links can be thought of as our votes in the popularity contest that is the "Best of the Best in Black Internet" . The intention is to provide a diverse and concise starting point for you to begin your quest for whatever information you are looking for from a progressive/radical/revolutionary Black perspective . As most of these sites have vast links sections of their own, so do the sites they link to, and so on, and so forth—starting from these links, you can delve further into whatever area interests you.

You got a myspace, youtube, odeo, website etc.
Add your Stuff Folx--and let's learn from each other, build together and teach the world

Our Zines are intended to help us develop and maintain a resource for scholarly research, build together and learn about any subject / topic related to what we're already about: Namely, the "Africentric Idea of Education" let's take the learner from G.E.D. to Ph.D in the contemporary liberal arts and sciences;

Including:
> computers & information technology,
> history and cultural development,
> religion and spirituality,
> sociology,
> political science,
> creative productions/ entertainment,
> education,
> health promotion and disease prevention
> economics and
> psychology
A one stop shop using all forms of media to interactively showcase our ideas of relavent education, unification, collectivity and self definition.

They say " Black Folx Can't Unite, I say they're a lie" Let's show the world our truth and culture; all under the umbrella of Black Nationalism> PanAfrikanism> Scientific Socialism> Revolutionary Change>Afrikan Internationalism.

Browse existing content in any of our four Zines and you will discover that they are all concentricly integrated, thus providing you with a most rich and wholesome interactive learning experience.

Help RBG Street Scholar, your Resident Guru, build our school with your good works.

Rate each others work as to keep us on point.

I'VE STARTED US OUT WITH SOME SOLID CONTENT. NOW WE MUST CONTINUE BY BUILDING TOGETHER. A GOOD WAY TO START IS BY FIRST SIGNING UP AND THEN BROWSING EACH FIELD IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS PANE TO THE LEFT AS TO GET QUICKLY ORIENTED. A LINK BELOW TO "RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK RULES OF ENGAGEMENT" WILL TAKE YOU DEEPER STILL.

THE FOLLOWING IS A GUIDING SYNOSIS TAKEN FROM THE COMMUNIVERSITY PROPER:
With strick attention to developing our student’s basic education skills in the context of the highest standards of academic excellence, suitable for one to confidently sit for high stake exams(ie. SAT/ACT and MCATs, LSATs), we simutaneously advance the psycho-emotional healing and spiritual upliftment of our people by providing KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM AND OVERSTANDING of the historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational experiences of Africans in America in away that RADICALLY REAPPRAISES EDUCATION from the pained and angry perspective of the oppressed black community.

WHY WE NEED TO DO THIS:
With the present day high rates of Black on Black homicide, suicide, and imprisonment and a rise in single-parent homes, rampant police brutality, unprecedented unemployment, and Blacks use of popular (ENEMY) culture (through music, video games and popular movies) to celebrate "anti-intellectualism, ignorance, irresponsible parenthood, drunkenness, dope dealing, weed smoking, cocaine, x-pills, loose sexual behavior and criminal lifestyles / thuggism"; we have chose to design a curriculum that, rather than getting caught up in the entertainment / BLACKPLOTATION aspects of hip hop/rap, will use hip hop/rap within a historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational framework to address these various death walks forthrightly. Our new methodological style is intended to get our young people to begin to think critically about themselves, their world and their role as people of Afrikan descent.

WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE WANNA GO:
This work is a comprehensive (but only a core framework) sequenced survey of subjects and topics that have confronted Afrikans in America throughout our 246 years of chattel slavery, 100 years of aparthied and only “one generation of freedom” here in America. I like to describe the school as a “cultural development and leadership training communiversity”. From our research, we have determined that the idea of Sankofa, which means "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today", really encompasses the whole Afrikan-centered ideal. Nonetheless, as this is a work in evolution and always under construction, we have chosen to focus our teaching/learning journey most directly on the past 45 years of our struggle for human and civil rights—

THE THEME “THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THINGS STAY THE SAME, WE NEED A REVOLUTION, THE SYSTEM AIN’T GONA CHANGE UNLESS WE MAKE IT CHANGE”.

The content and character of the curriculum is Afrikan-centered and the goal is academic excellence in persuit of black power. We tease out the social, political, economic and moral imparatives of black power in the 21st century by zooming in on two povital questions throughout our course of study:

“WHAT IS BLACK OPPRESSION IN AMERICA AND WHAT IS AFRIKAN LIBERATION.”

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Sankofa / The Movie: "return to the past"

Written by RBGStreetScholar on

From: rbg-street-scholar-multi-media-e-zine.blogspot.com

SANKOFA is an Akan word that means, one must return to the past in order to move forward. Mona, a contemporary model, is possessed by spirits lingering in the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana and travels to the past, where, as a house servant called Shola she is constantly abused by the slave master. Nunu, an African-born field hand, and Shango, Sholas West Indian Lover, continuously rebel against the slave system. For Nunu this means direct conflict with her son, a mulatto benefitting from the system as a head slave. Inspired by Nunu and Shangos determination to defy the system, Shola finally takes her fate into her own hands.

Click here for the black background version

Synopsis

[1] Sankofa begins in Africa, in Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, where there is an interplay between a tour group and a photo shoot of Mona, an African American model. In the middle of the shoot, a mysterious man appears, claiming to be the guardian of the castle, he tells the tour group to go away, and Mona to go back to her past. He claims that his people were stolen from Africa through this very location. Mona then wanders through the dungeon following the tour and finds Africans shackled in the dungeons of the castle. She tries to flea but is soon taken captive by people of European descent as she cries in vain that she is an American, not an African.

[2] Thus, her story as Shola begins. These scenes take place in a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana. Shola is a house slave, who does her duties as a slave and does not partake in anything that she deems evil or wrong. She professes her love for Shango, a West Indian slave who tries to change her timid views. Next, a group is shown talking about Nunu, a woman who kills her master just by staring at him. (Click here to hear this story.) Shola, who during this story, recalls being raped by her master, wishes for these powers. The next scene includes a dramatic whipping, where two men, Joe and Noble Ali are depicted, respectively, as a half white headman slave who strives to adopt the white’s ways and a headman slave who appears to be having issues with his role and duties as a headman. Both partake in the whipping of other slaves. When Kutu, one of the slaves who is pregnant, dies after being whipped, Nunu comes and performs a Caesarian to save the child.

[3] Talk of rebellion is soon introduced to the film. Apparently, certain slaves meet secretly with free blacks from the hills to discuss upcoming rebellions. After one unsuccessful rebellion, several slaves are left in cages suspended from trees to die and Nunu is sold. Slowly, Shola starts to learn the importance of resisting. This is primarily because she is repeatedly raped by one of the master even though she prays to the white man’s God. In fact she feels the more she prays to the white man's God the more she is raped. When she is beaten and whipped severely after an unsuccessful escape, she is consoled by Shango and given a Sankofa bird. This act, she claims, turns her into a rebel and she finally realizes the importance of resisting.

[4] The story then shifts to Joe, who has been almost poisoned by another slave. Nunu, his mother, tries to save him, but instead he kills her because he has been convinced by Father Rafael, the priest, that Nunu is the devil. Joe brings his mother's corpse to the church where he finally realizes his betrayal of his people and his own mother, and then he kills Father Rafael. After this escapade, rebellion starts brewing again. This time, Shola kills her rapist, and the rebellion is successful in that many of the slaves realize the importance of resistance and several of the headmasters and slave holders are killed. However, all of the rebelling slaves are chased down by dogs and eventually caught and killed. Shola feels herself lifted up and carried by buzzards who bring her spirit home. The story shifts back to the present, where Shola, or Mona at this time, ignores the photographer and goes to listen to an African chant being performed by Sankofa, a chant which she now has an appreciation for due to her new awareness of her rich African background.

Images and Text From / Study Further:
http://dickinsg.intrasun.tcnj.edu/sankofa/index.htm

Buy the Film on DVD:
http://sankofastore.com/catalog/homepage.php

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