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    StartingOverAgainAlana Walker
    3/30/17 10:02am

    He was very gracious to the folks over at This Is Us, when I think a lot of folks wouldn’t have faulted him for not being that way.

    Seems like a pretty incredible dude.

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    Hoyo AfrikaAlana Walker
    3/30/17 11:36am

    This is lovely. One thing that kept bothering me though was the use of the imperial flag of Ethiopia. I never understood why new world Africans would turn to symbols of imperialism such as Haile Sellasie. The man was ultimately overthrown by his people for being a tyrant who imposed man-made famines on the Somali, Oromo and Eritrean. Glad to see him doing this work but symbols have meaning. Like, if I had a child and heard about this program, that patch would totally turn me off.

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      Bahamamama1Hoyo Afrika
      3/30/17 11:57am

      I think there are a lot of people in the diaspora that because of the purposeful disconnect from our African roots and a rightful distrust in the way we receive African history, cling to litteraly anything that seems African. That Ethiopia was never colonized is a huge thing for a lot of people even though they don’t know that much beyond that. Or the obsession with Egypt and an inability to acknowledge 1) things happened there after Phaoronic time and 2) Egypt’s own modern racist colonial misadventures. Obsession with symbols and projection of our own stuff all over them regardless of their historical context is a problem. Until we work on that we won’t be able to kill hotepery or any other lies about Africa that keep us disconnected from our actual history and other POC.

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      Hoyo AfrikaBahamamama1
      3/30/17 1:03pm

      I understand your point about wanting to feel a connection but in Toronto there are many Rastas, for example. Many hail from former British colonies such as Grenada, Jamaica, Guyana, etc. I found it odd that many use Christian objections to homosexuality and macho African figures, who were instrumental in dividing the Somali across 4-5 borders (in E. Africa) at any given time. This all came to a head last summer for me when I moved into a vegan commune. There lived a Rasta who went to one of the universities nearby. It was funny to see him denounce violence against Palestinians and shut down any discussion of how imperial (and post-imperial) Ethiopia uses man-made famine and food distribution to weaken resistance against Amharocentrism. I just don’t understand the selective nature at work. Somalis opposing Ethiopia are not be considered but what the Palestinians are doing is noble.

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    David Puddy the 2ndAlana Walker
    3/30/17 9:25am

    Man people really need to stop cutting onions in here.

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