Before there was the NAACP, there was the Afro-American Council (1898-1907)

, The Afro American Council Meeting in Oakland, California1907


The Afro-American Council (AAC) was established in Rochester, New York, in September 1898 by newspaper editor T. Thomas Fortune and Bishop Alexander Walters of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. They envisioned the organization as a revival of the earlier National Afro-American League (NAAL), which in 1890 became the first national black organization specifically created to challenge racial segregation and discrimination. By the mid-1890s the NAAL dissolved as conditions facing Southern African Americans continued to worsen. The AAC proposed to take up the goals of the defunct NAAL. Like its predecessor, the AAC opposed lynching, disfranchisement of black voters, and racial discrimination against all African Americans.

Joesph Charles Parks; First President of the AAC


The immediate impetus for the AAC was the brutal murder of African American postmaster Frazier B. Baker in Lake City, South Carolina by a white mob. In response to the incident, Fortune and Walters called for a number of black leaders to meet at Rochester to dedicate a statue of Frederick Douglass, the city's most prominent African American resident, and to remain there to create the Afro-American Council.


With the inclusion of a broader spectrum of black leaders including journalists, attorneys, educators, politicians and community activists, the AAC was both more representative of the larger black middle class and better positioned to generate funds to support its activities. Bishop Walters of Washington, D.C., was its first president. Other officers included Ida B. Wells of Chicago as secretary and John C. Dancy of North Carolina as Vice President. Representative George Henry White of North Carolina, the only black member of Congress at the time, was later a vice president of the organization. Other prominent members included Mary Church Terrell, W.E.B. DuBois, former Louisiana governor Pinckney B.S. Pinchback, Professor William S. Scarborough, Henry O. Flipper, the first black West Point graduate, and Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute.


The AAC was notable in that it was one of the first black organizations to welcome women as equal members. The organization also was the first black group to meet regularly with a U.S. President. It met with President William McKinley each year between 1898 and 1901. The AAC lobbied for the passage of a federal anti-lynching law and raised funds to challenge the Louisiana constitution's "grandfather clause" which effectively eliminated black voting in the state.


Despite its goal of having African America speak with one voice on politics (black Republicans and Democrats joined the AAC), the organization eventually divided into pro- and anti- Booker T. Washington factions. By 1902 Washington supporters dominated the Council and three years later most of the anti-Washington Council members including DuBois, Wells, Terrell, and Bishop Walters left to form the Niagara Movement. The AAC held its final meeting in Baltimore in 1907.


Although the AAC was torn by factionalism and achieved few successes, it laid the groundwork for independent black political action in an era of racial segregation and helped train some of the nation’s most prominent black activists who would go on to create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.

Atlanta Compromise Speech by Booker T Washington

On September 18, 1895, African-American spokesman and leader Booker T. Washington spoke before a predominantly white audience at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. His “Atlanta Compromise” address, as it came to be called, was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history. Although the organizers of the exposition worried that “public sentiment was not prepared for such an advanced step,” they decided that inviting a black speaker would impress Northern visitors with the evidence of racial progress in the South. Washington soothed his listeners’ concerns about “uppity” blacks by claiming that his race would content itself with living “by the productions of our hands.”

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens:






One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom.



Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden.

A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal,“Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”— cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.

Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.

To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race,“Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed—blessing him that gives and him that takes. There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable:

The laws of changeless justice bind Oppressor with oppressed;

And close as sin and suffering joined We march to fate abreast...

Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third [of] its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic.

Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect overmuch. Starting thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscellaneous sources), remember the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements, buggies, steam-engines, newspapers, books, statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug stores and banks, has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come to our educational life, not only from the Southern states, but especially from Northern philanthropists, who have made their gifts a constant stream of blessing and encouragement.

The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.

In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition; and here bending, as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles of your race and mine, both starting practically empty-handed three decades ago, I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race; only let this he constantly in mind, that, while from representations in these buildings of the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, letters, and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material benefits will be that higher good, that, let us pray God, will come, in a blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This, coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth.

MUAMMAR AL QADHAFI ;The Consummate Revolutionary Leader of the World Revolution

Man of faith and tradition, Muammar Al Qadhafi cannot be classified according to the criteria commonly admitted. If you search for him on the right you will find him on the left, since he preaches in many ways a renovation with the air of revolution. But if you look for him on the left you risk finding him on the right, because this sincere mystic is tied to more than one traditional value. It is not Qadhafi who is senseless; it is the terms, obsolete, and upon which are based the subjective judgements of foreign observers who are more interested in polemic than in the truth."

- Prof. Francis Dessart

Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) meets with Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddaf

To the all exploiters and enemies of humanity, Muammar Qadhafi is the world's number one 'terrorist'. But to the oppressed, the exploited and the struggling peoples of the earth he is a teacher, guide, brother, but above all, the leader of a world revolution for a New Civilization.


At the Second World Mathaba Conference held in Tripoli, Libya, on March 15th, 1986, just one month prior to the United States bombing raids on Libya, the spiritual head of the North American based "Nation of Islam", Minister Louis Farrakhan introduced Muammar Qadhafi by stating that the Libyan Arab people's collective need for freedom produced a leader who was born to serve the masses. Minister Farrakhan said that when a people is oppressed the need for freedom produces a longing which in turn produces a leader.



"The oppressor is always watching for that leader," Louis Farrakhan explained, "...they know that the people will never be free until they produce a leader with the vision to create the revolution and see it through to its ultimate end."



Such a leader is Muammar Al Qadhafi.

Muammar Al Qadhafi is more than just the Leader of the Libyan people. More than the Leader of the struggling Arab Nation. More than the symbol of hope and freedom for the oppressed of Africa, Asia and Latin America. For he is above all the Leader of the World Revolution. A man of determination and courage who is carrying the torch of real liberty not just for his own people, but for the people of the entire world. These are not just mere words or idle praises because unlike many of this century's heads of state who have laid claim to the mantle of 'revolutionary leader', Muammar Al Qadhafi's ACTIONS and LIFE have earned him the title of Leader of the World Revolution. Many men have apportioned to themselves the titles of Leader and Revolutionary but few reflect the great responsibilities of such appellations in even the smallest aspects of their lives. Muammar Al Qadhafi is a truly unique man, a man of a different calibre, a man whose example and thoughts inspire the struggling oppressed masses and haunts the oppressors. This is why he is loved by the peoples of the world but feared by the ruling exploiting cliques who know that his words and actions expose them for what they are.



Qadhafi's Inspiration



In the desert heaven and earth meet. It was in the desert that God spoke to Moses, and in the desert the ancient revolutionary Prophet Elijah heard the "still voice of God" ordering him to face the tyranny of an oppressive ruler. In the desert, Christ prepared himself through fasting and prayers for a mission which was to shape Western history. In the solitude of the desert the Prophet of Islam Muhammad contemplated the order of creation and the sad state of his own people. In the desert Muammar Al Qadhafi was born, lived, dreamed and reflected. (Islam and the Third Universal Theory, Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub, Ch. 1.) From an early age he appeared to be different from other children. He was serious, even taciturn; yet his stern countenance was always tempered with an inquisitive smile. He was an only son to a family who lived in the desert, far from the city and its demands and benefits. Young Muammar seldom played with his cousins; rather he was always lost in thought about one thing or another. (Gadafi, Voice From the Desert, Mirella Bianco, Page 4.)



When asked about how he was brought up Brother Qadhafi said: "It was difficult in terms of the circumstances and the environment under which I lived. Bedouin life is mobile; the strictness of upbringing therefore comes from the severity of these circumstances. But socially I was free. We were Bedouins enjoying full freedom and we lived amongst nature and everything was absolutely pure, in its true self, in front of us. We lived on the land and there was nothing between us and the sky."



The eternal values and natural traditions of his Bedouin background helped to provide Muammar Qadhafi with a profound appreciation of the innate aspects of human existence. Brother Qadhafi himself has stated:



"Bedouin society made me discover the natural laws, natural relationships, life in its true nature and what suffering was like before life knew oppression and exploitation. This had enabled me to discover the truths that I have presented in the Green Book. It gave me a chance which has never been given to anybody else in my position. I have known and lived life in its very primitive stages. Because of that early life, a very simple life, I have lived life in its various stages right up to this modern age of imperialism when life became very complicated, very abnormal and unnatural. ...I had a general idea how to make the masses free, how to make man happy. After that, things started to get clearer." ('Heart to Heart With Qadhafi', New Africa, Feb. 1983.)

Even as a youth, Muammar Qadhafi earned the respect and admiration of his fellow secondary school students for his passionate interest in politics and revolutionary example. He used any political issue or significant event as a good occasion for a demonstration: the Algerian revolution, French testing of an atom bomb over the Sahara, the death of Patrice Lumumba and the dissolution of the Syrian-Egyptian union in 1961 are only a few examples. It was while at secondary school in Sebha that Muammar Qadhafi formed the first revolutionary committee out of a small circle trusted like-minded friends to whom he confided his revolutionary vision of a new Libyan society of freedom and independence. Among these young people were Abdul Salam Jalloud and others who have played a leading role in the Libyan Revolution. Single-minded and self-determined Muammar Qadhafi dedicated himself to the overthrow of the corrupt regime of King Idris and the establishment of the new society on the principles of justice, equality and a fair distribution of wealth.



Inspired by the Great Arab Revolutionary Gamal Abdul Nasser, Muammar Qadhafi in 1963 joined the military academy and the following year organised the Free Unionist Officers as a revolutionary force committed to the liberation of Libya and the achievement of Arab unity. Original members of the first revolutionary committee formed at Sebha secondary school, like Abdul Salam Jalloud, also joined the military, following the leadership and example of Muammar Qadhafi. However the Free Unionist Officers were not a vague independence party, but a highly disciplined, committed movement upholding moral strictness, Arab unity, freedom and social justice. One of their first axioms was freedom from any party politics.



Mirella Bianco after interviewing Col. Qadhafi's childhood friends and close family members wrote: "it is in the desert that one must seek out the very essence of Qadhafi's nature, of the spirituality, of the mysticism which have greater weight than any of his aspirations, and which influence even his political action... It is precisely this concept of liberty, the intangible freedom of desert people, - a freedom entirely one's own and yet a submission to God, and God alone, - which underlies all the choices, decisions and actions taken by Qadhafi; even, and perhaps essentially, those of a political nature. To his way of thinking, there is no salvation for mankind or for the nations unless they believe in God and cling to those moral values which no coercion can enforce, and which can arise only from faith." (Gadafi, Voice from the Desert, Mirella Bianco, P.4.)



September One



On September 1st, 1969 the months of planning and the years of dedication and discipline came to fruition. With one determined blow from the Free Unionist Officers the reactionary regime of King Idris collapsed and a new day dawned in the history of Libya, the Arab Nation and of the world's struggling peoples. Not a military coup d'etat it was the beginning of a revolution the ramifications of which were to reach every part of the globe and touch the lives of all peoples. It was the beginning of a revolution which answered the inner call of humanity and was inspired and led by Muammar Qadhafi. Shortly before his death the father of Arab nationalism, Gamal Abdul Nasser, while speaking at a rally at Benghazi noted the world historic role that Muammar Qadhafi would play. The great Egyptian leader declared: "I am leaving you, I say to you: My brother Muammar Qadhafi is the representative of Arab nationalism, of the Arab revolution and Arab unity. My dear brothers, may God watch over you for the well-being of the Arab people. May you go from victory to victory, for your victories are the victories of the Arab people."



The revolution which began on September 1st 1969 was unlike previous coups and so-called revolutions, it had as its aim not the glorification of another ruling clique or exploiting class but the victory of the dreams and hopes of the masses for final emancipation. On September 1st, 1969 a revolution dawned under the leadership of Muammar Qadhafi which answered the cry of the people and responded to the examples of the Prophets and Apostles of God.



Today, many years after the formation of the first revolutionary committee, the organisation of the Free Unionist Officers and 1st of September 1969, Muammar Qadhafi still holds to these sublime values and lives them as the Leader of the World Revolution. In the words of Vanity Fair journalist T.D. Allman: "If Kirkegaard was right, and purity of heart is to will one thing and one thing only, then Qadhafi was the purest-hearted military conspirator ever to seize control of a nation. He did not drink or smoke, there are no tales of youthful passion; he appeared to have no personal life at all."



This purity of heart, single-mindedness, courage, dedication and self-determination are the cherished aspects of a revolutionary life and they can be seen in abundance in the life of the Leader Muammar Qadhafi. These noble qualities enabled Col. Qadhafi, with profound insight, to develop the principles of the Third Universal Theory and apply them in the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Since the Bolshevik uprising in Russia the world had been locked in a struggle between the forces of Marxist communism and liberal capitalism. Revolutionaries who rejected both of these ideologies could find no leadership or coherent worldview which articulated their positions and was responsive to the real needs of the masses. This was only the case until the publication of The Green Book. Muammar Qadhafi has commented that: "It is not like writing an ordinary book. It was simply an attempt to explain the dialectic which exists between Marxism and capitalism. The world has reached a political and economic impasse, and humanity simply cannot accept this impasse and accept to die. There must be a way out. That way out is this new theory". ('Heart to Heart With Qadhafi', New Africa, Feb. 1983.)



Qadhafi's Vision



At a conference on Euro-Arab relations in Tripoli in May 1973, the Leader of the Revolution expounded on the philosophical aspect of the Third Universal Theory and its relationship to national and social liberation. In this speech we see the highly developed awareness of the Revolutionary Muammar Qadhafi and his acute appreciation of the complex inner needs of all the world's peoples. It is worth recalling his words which are still very relevant to life in the 1990s. He said:



"Humanity now urgently needs a cry of justice which would return it to its senses and to its Creator... We need to go back to God and turn away from evil... Atomic bombs, missiles, biological weapons and aggression can only be the making of the Devil. The ideology we propose to the world is humanitarian but not made by men, nor is it a philosophy, but it is based on truth.... This is Gods law, always one, immortal, and unchangeable, a universal religion of truth which belongs to all mankind. The Third Theory offers an alternative to capitalist materialism and communist atheism and calls for the return of mankind to the Kingdom of God. Mankind was never in greater need to rearm itself with faith than it is now. We all know that all the philosophies and ideologies have failed to disprove the existence of God, and as the truth of His existence is self-evident, it is quite clear that society must be reorganised in every country of the world in accordance with the will of God and the precepts of His Prophets."



Here we see the philosophical depth of the Third Universal Theory and how it has been drawn from the struggle of the masses for freedom and from the dynamic revolutionary precepts of the Messengers of God. "The Third Universal Theory, in simple terms, is a comprehensive formulation of the noble principles and moral values sent down from Heaven to the Prophets and Apostles to help guide people on the right path leading to happiness, stability and human tolerance. It is a worldview based on the concepts of justice, righteousness, moral fortitude, and respect for national existence. The Third Universal Theory has answers for the political, military and socio-economic problems facing human communities. For instance, popular rule is the political face of justice and righteousness. Socialism is the economic face of social justice, and the armed liberation struggle against colonialism in all its forms is the military face of peace and justice. These are principles that are able to guide every aspect of life. Since the problems of democracy and economic justice are closely connected with the whole well-being of society, we can, in the light of these principles, achieve right among peoples through people's power, and a new socialist society, free from exploitation, oppression and wrong-doing." (Jamahiriya Era of the Masses, Libyan People's Bureau, Canberra, Australia. P.20.)



This is the world historical mission of the son of the desert Muammar Qadhafi to return to the natural precepts which alone can guarantee human fulfilment and establish justice in the society. As such Muammar Qadhafi's message covers the political, economic, social and philosophical dimensions of life. In The Green Book he sets out fully the principles of the Third Universal Theory, a way which alone can lead searching humanity out of the capitalist/Marxist nexus. The main idea behind The Green Book is a return to the natural life and to natural forms of socialism and direct democracy - People's Power - which places all authority, wealth and arms in the hands of the people. To quote from The Green Book: "Finally, the era of the masses, which follows the age of the republics, excites the feelings and dazzles the eyes... The Third Universal Theory heralds emancipation from the fetters of injustice, despotism, exploitation and economic and political hegemony, for the purpose of establishing a society of all the people where all are free and have equal share in authority, wealth and arms. Freedom will then triumph definitively and universally." (The Green Book, Muammar Al Qadhafi.)



The Italian writer Mirella Bianco drew a comparison between Muammar Qadhafi and the Prophet Muhammed which is worthy of note. Both the Prophet and Qadhafi are Bedouins of a similar desert background. They both share, therefore, a common love for freedom, physical endurance, and an ideal of equality in society. They are both given to meditation, and share the belief that no real change in society could occur without a spiritual transformation. Both share a feeling of urgency in having to convey their vision of the universe to others. They are both teachers with unshakable certainty in the rightness of their convictions. They both possess unusual courage, and an indomitable determination to pursue their mission. Finally, they are products of similar moments of transition and change in human history.



A Revolutionary Life



In a rare interview with Western journalists in January 1986, only months before the U.S. terrorist bombing of Libya, the Leader of the Revolution spoke frankly about his life and how he had been misunderstood by the West. Meeting the journalists in his tent he told of how he admired former US Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and of other world leaders he admires like "Egypt's late Gamal Abdul Nasser, India's Mahatma Gandhi, Sun Yat-Sen of China and Italy's Garibaldi and Mazzini." (Really, I'm a Nice Guy, Kate Dourian, Tripoli, Libya.) He spoke of his favourite book The Outsider by British author Colin Wilson and others he likes such as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Roots. Throughout this interview the profound thinking and innate humanity of Muammar Qadhafi shone through.



In March 1986 the British newspaper Daily Mail held an exclusive interview with the Revolutionary Leader. In the introduction to the article the writer commented: "It was hard to credit that this was the man President Reagan had condemned as the world's number one terrorist. Colonel Muammar Al Qadhafi was simple and charming sitting by the bonfire outside his tent when I arrived to interview him. He told me: 'I see the press as being the messengers between me and the world to tell them the truth.'"



The failed actor and failed President Reagan addressing a press conference in November 1985 was asked what he thought of Muammar Qadhafi. In a rare moment of sanity Reagan replied: "I just think that the man is a zealot. He's pursuing a revolutionary cause that could affect a great many countries." (US Targets Libya Again, The Green March, Brisbane, Australia, Feb-March 1986.) So this is Muammar Qadhafi's "crime" in the eyes of imperialism. Muammar Qadhafi's "crime" is actively working to build a better world for all humanity and outlining in his Green Book a way by which the masses on every continent can take power, wealth and arms into their hands.



At a time in world history when so-called revolutionaries are deserting principle and rushing to join the ranks of the bourgeoisie ruling circles, the Leader Muammar Qadhafi stands out as a symbol of steadfast commitment to revolutionary principles. As he himself has said: "I am a revolutionary in struggle. One doesn't become tired when one is engaged in struggle. The struggle will continue. I will continue." The life of Muammar Qadhafi is one of revolutionary struggle and sacrifice for the well-being and victory of the masses of humanity. Muammar Qadhafi's inspiration, vision and life have earned him the title of LEADER OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION. Let us all resolve to march forward under his direction and encouraged by his example taking the message of the Green Book to a searching and seeking world.

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone (/ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is most associated with jazz music. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles that include classical, jazz, blues, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, a loose vibrato, and a slightly androgynous timbre, in part due to her unusually low vocal range which veered between the alto and tenor ranges (occasionally even reaching baritone lows). Also known as The High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness and tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, amplified by bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed in the mid-1960s, something not widely known until after her death in 2003, though she wrote of it openly in her autobiography published in 1992. According to Nadine Cohodas, Simone's biographer, Ms. Simone was first diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and later with schizophrenia.


Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the greatest body of her work released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Her most well known songs include "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I Put a Spell on You", "Four Women", "I Loves You Porgy", "Feeling Good", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Sinnerman", "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Mississippi Goddam", "Ain't Got No, I Got Life," "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl", and "Love Me or Leave Me".

Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence . Several hip hop musicians and other modern artists sample and remix Simone's rhythms and beats on their tracks. In particular, Talib Kweli and Mos Def routinely pay tribute to her outstanding and soulful musical style. Many of her songs are featured on motion picture soundtracks, as well as in video games, commercials, and TV series.






Life and career



Youth (1933–1954)



Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. One of eight children in a poor family, her ancestry was mixed heritage, and included Native American, African American and Irish. She began playing piano aged three; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the instrument she performed at her local church, but her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was twelve. Simone later claimed that during this performance her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. Simone said she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front, the incident contributing to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.



Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (who lived into her late 90s), was a housemaid and also a strict Methodist minister. Simone's father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who at one time owned a dry-cleaning business, but who also suffered bouts of ill health. Mary Kate's employer, hearing of Nina's talent, provided funds for piano lessons. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Simone's continued education. With the assistance of this scholarship money, Simone moved to New York City, where she attended high school at the Juilliard School of Music.



After finishing high school, she studied for an interview with the help of a private tutor to further study piano at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her being black.



Early success (1954–1959)



To fund her private lessons Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano. In 1954 she adopted the stage name Nina Simone, to keep her mother from learning that she was playing "the devil's music". "Nina" (from niña, meaning 'little girl' in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given to her, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie Casque d'or. Simone's mixture at the bar of jazz, blues and classical music, earned her a small but loyal fan base



After playing in small clubs, in 1958 she recorded a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone missed out on more than $1 million in royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" during the 1980s) and never benefited financially from the album, after selling its rights for $3,000.



Becoming popular (1959–1964)



After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with the larger company Colpix Records, followed by a string of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control, including the choice of material that would be recorded, to her in exchange for her contracting with them. Simone, who at this point only performed popular music to make money to continue her classical music studies, was bold with her demand for control over her music because she was indifferent about having a recording contract. She would keep this attitude towards the record industry for most of her career.



Simone married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud, in 1961; Stroud later became her manager.

Civil rights era (1964–1974)



During 1964, she changed record distributors, from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips, which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings. Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that hinted about her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on Nina at the Village Gate during 1962). But on her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone In Concert (live recording, 1964), Simone for the first time openly addresses the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song "Mississippi Goddam". It was her response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children. The song was released as a single, being boycotted in certain southern states.[3][13] With "Old Jim Crow" on the same album she reacts to the Jim Crow Laws.



From then onwards, a civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, where it had already become a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches. Simone advocated violent revolution during the civil rights period as opposed to Martin Luther King's non-violent approach, and hoped that African Americans could, by armed combat, form a separate state (Simone was not, however, a racist, and wrote in her autobiography that her family and indeed herself regarded all races as equal.) She covered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (on Pastel Blues (1965)), a song about the lynching of black men in the South, and sang the W. Cuney poem "Images" on Let It All Out (1966), about the absence of pride in the African-American woman. Simone wrote "Four Women", a song about four different stereotypes of African-American women. and sings it on Wild Is the Wind (1966).

Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor during 1967. She sang "Backlash Blues", written by her friend Langston Hughes on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967) she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album Nuff Said (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor, directly after the news of King's death had reached them.



Together with Weldon Irvine, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberry's unfinished play "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" into a civil rights song. Lorraine Hansberry had been a personal friend whom Simone credited with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and the song has been covered by Aretha Franklin (on 1972s Young, Gifted and Black) and Donny Hathaway.



Later life (1974–2003)



Simone left the United States in September 1970. She flew to Barbados, expecting her husband and manager, Stroud, to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance (and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring) as a cue for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was also in charge of Simone's income. This meant that after their separation Simone did not have any knowledge about how her business was managed and what she was actually worth. Upon returning to the United States, she also learned that she was wanted for unpaid taxes, causing her to go back to Barbados again to evade the authorities and prosecution. Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time, and had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow. A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, persuaded her to go to Liberia. After that she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France during 1992.



She recorded her last album for RCA Records, It Is Finished, during 1974. Simone did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album Baltimore, which, while not a commercial success, did get good reviews and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output. Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later Simone recorded Fodder On My Wings on a French label. During the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, where the album Live at Ronnie Scott's was recorded during 1984. Though her on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in an advert for Chanel No. 5 perfume in the UK. This led to a re-release which stormed to number 5 in the UK singles chart giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK. Her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, was published during 1992 and she recorded her last album, A Single Woman, in 1993.



In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She had been ill with breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône on April 21, 2003. Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message "You were the greatest and I love you". Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter, Lisa Celeste, now an actress/singer who took on the stage name Simone and has appeared on Broadway in Aida.



Musical style



Simone standards



Throughout her career, Simone gathered a collection of songs that would become standards in her repertoire (apart from the civil rights songs) and for which she is still remembered, even though most of these songs did not perform well on the charts at the time. These songs were self-written tunes, cover versions (usually with a new arrangement by Simone), or songs written especially for Simone. Her first hit song in America was a cover of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 in the pop singles chart and number 2 on the black singles chart. During that same period Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later in 1987, when it was featured in a Chanel no. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was then created by Aardman Studios.



Well known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne Me Quitte Pas" (a Jacques Brel cover) and "Feeling Good" on I Put A Spell On You (1965), "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966). Especially the songs "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Feeling Good" and "Sinnerman" (Pastel Blues, 1965) have great popularity today in terms of cover versions (most notably The Animals' version of the former song), sample usage and its use on various movie-, TV-series- and videogame soundtracks. "Sinnerman" in particular has been featured in the TV series Scrubs, on movies such as The Thomas Crown Affair, Miami Vice, and Inland Empire, and sampled by artists like Talib Kweli and Timbaland. The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album Finding Forever, and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 album Tha Carter III. The song "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his 808s and Heartbreak album.



Simone's years at RCA-Victor spawned a number of singles and album songs that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair from the album 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 2 on the UK pop charts and introducing her to a younger audience. In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder. The following single, the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" also reached the UK top 10 in 1969. "House of the Rising Sun" featured on Nina Simone Sings The Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song earlier in 1961 (featuring on Nina At The Village Gate, 1962), predating versions by Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan. It was later picked up by The Animals and became their signature hit.



Performing style



Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title "High Priestess of Soul". Her live performances were regarded not as mere concerts, but as happenings. She was a piano player, singer and performer, "separately and simultaneously". On stage, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz and folk, to numbers infused with European classical styling, and Bach-style counterpoint fugues. She incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element Simone compared it to "mass hypnosis. I use it all the time" Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.



Simone had a reputation in the music industry for being volatile and sometimes difficult to deal with, a characterization with which she strenuously took issue. In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughter disturbed her concentration. She also fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties. It is now recognized that this "difficulty" was the result of bipolar disorder. Simone reluctantly took medication for her condition from the mid-1960s on. All this was only known to a small group of intimates, and kept out of public view for many years, until the biography Break Down And Let It All Out written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan revealed this secret in 2004.



Legacy and influence



Music



Nina Simone is often cited by artists from diverse musical fields as a source of inspiration. Musicians who have cited her as important for their own musical upbringing are among others Elkie Brooks, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Kanye West, John Legend, Elizabeth Fraser, Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Mary J. Blige, Michael Gira, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Ian MacKaye, Kerry Brothers, Jr. "Krucial", Amanda Palmer and Jeff Buckley. John Lennon cited Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You" as a source of inspiration for the Beatles song "Michelle".Musicians who have covered her work (or her specific renditions of songs) include Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, J.Viewz, Carola, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Marilyn Manson, Donny Hathaway, David Bowie, Elkie Brooks, Roberta Flack, Jeff Buckley, The Animals, Muse, Cat Power, Katie Melua, Timbaland, Feist, Shara Worden, and Michael Bublé. Simone's music has featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games, including but not limited to The Big Lebowski (1998), Point of No Return (AKA The Assassin, 1993) Notting Hill (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Six Feet Under (2001), The Dancer Upstairs (film) (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Sex and the City (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Watchmen (2009), and The Saboteur (2009). Her music is frequently used in remixes, commercials and TV series.



Film



The documentary Nina Simone: La Legende (The Legend) was made in the '90s by French filmmakers. It was based on her autobiography I Put A Spell On You and features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with friends and family, various interviews with Simone herself while she was living in the Netherlands, and on a trip to her birthplace. A significant amount of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and titled simply Nina.



Her filmed 1976 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and is screened annually in New York City at an event called "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976," curated by Tom Blunt .



Plans for a Nina Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005. The movie will be based on Simone's autobiography I Put A Spell On You (1992) and will also focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006. TV writer Cynthia Mort (Will & Grace, Roseanne) is working on the script, and singer Mary J. Blige will play the lead role. The movie is scheduled for 2012.



Honors



On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone. Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities from the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm X College. She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute, the school that had turned her down at the start of her career



Discography



1958 Little Girl Blue Studio Bethlehem Records


1959 Nina Simone and Her Friends Studio

The Amazing Nina Simone Studio Colpix Records

Nina Simone at Town Hall Live and studio

1960 Nina Simone at Newport Live 23 (pop)

Forbidden Fruit Studio

1962 Nina at the Village Gate Live

Nina Simone Sings Ellington Live

1963 Nina's Choice Compilation

Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall Live

1964 Folksy Nina Live

Nina Simone in Concert Live Philips Records 102 (pop)

Broadway-Blues-Ballads Studio

1965 I Put a Spell on You Studio 99 (pop)

Pastel Blues Studio 8 (black)

1966 Nina Simone with Strings Studio (strings added) Colpix

Let It All Out Live and studio Philips 19 (black)

Wild Is the Wind Studio 12 (black)

1967 High Priestess of Soul Studio 29 (black)

Nina Simone Sings the Blues Studio RCA Records 29 (black)

Silk & Soul Studio 24 (black)

1968 Nuff Said Live and studio 44 (black)

1969 Nina Simone and Piano Studio

To Love Somebody Studio

1970 Black Gold Live 29 (black)

1971 Here Comes the Sun Studio 190 (pop)

1972 Emergency Ward Live and studio

1974 It Is Finished Live

1978 Baltimore Studio CTI Records 12 (jazz)

1980 The Rising Sun Collection Live Enja

1982 Fodder on My Wings Studio Carrere

1984 Backlash Live StarJazz

1985 Nina's Back Studio VPI

1985 Live & Kickin Live

1987 Let It Be Me Live Verve

Live at Ronnie Scott's Live Hendring-Wadham

The Nina Simone Collection Compilation Deja Vu

1993 A Single Woman Studio Elektra Records 3 (top jazz)

Additional releases

1969 A Very Rare Evening Live PM Records (Japan)

1975 The Great Show Live in Paris Live RCA?

1997 Released Compilation RCA Victor Europe

2003 Gold Studio remastered Universal/UCJ

Anthology Compilation (from many labels) RCA/BMG Heritage

2004 Nina Simone's Finest Hour Compilation Verve/Universal

2005 The Soul of Nina Simone Compilation + DVD RCA DualDisc

Nina Simone Live at Montreux 1976 DVD only Eagle Eye Media

2006 The Very Best of Nina Simone Compilation Sony BMG

Remixed and Reimagined Remix Legacy/SBMG 5 (contemp.jazz)

Songs to Sing: the Best of Nina Simone Compilation/Live Compilation Deluxe

Forever Young, Gifted & Black: Songs of Freedom and Spirit Remix RCA

2008 To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story Compilation Sony Legacy

2009 The Definitive Rarities Collection - 50 Classic Cuts Compilation Artwork Media

? Nina Simone Live DVD only: Studio 1961 & '62 Kultur/Creative Arts Television

Check Out Stephanie Rose's New Book "Christians OF Faith Teaching Ministries Heaven’s Mysteries Are At Hand"

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The Hypnotical Tell A Vision Television

If you want to learn how to hypnotize someone, then you need to learn a thing or two from the entertainment industry. You may not know it, but television is used to hypnotize people.
These days, everyone must have their own form of entertainment. Music is everywhere, good food is out there, and hanging out with your friends is the best. But there’s one invention that has everything I just mentioned and more. If you do not know what I’m talking about, then you’re in for quite an entertaining treat.

---

Television, or TV for short, has captured everyone’s attention as every channel in it has a different approach that fancies different people. It has the ability to attract eyes, literally. It knows how to hypnotize someone all in one click. Whatever state of emotion you are in, you will forget it, or better, it will change emotions.

Who doesn’t forget their problems whenever they see six entertaining friends hanging out in New York? It might also be Oprah interviewing Tom Cruise, Ellen’s 12 days of giveaways, or Tyra’s motivational tips on how to look or feel better, or maybe you prefer Rachel Ray’s quirky cooking. Or if you just want to plain watch to feel bad or better, maybe you’re an HBO viewer.





Plenty of breakthroughs have happened since the invention of television. What started out as plain black and white programming soon became entertainment in living color. Sitcoms have captured the audience’s hearts. News are now seen and heard rather than read. And when people wanted more of their favorite artists, MTV was invented. And soon, people are dancing not in front of the radio, but with television. Now, let’s not even start with the special effects shows and the reality shows, because that’s just a dose of what’s in store for us in the future. Who knows what comes next, maybe soon we can actually have those dishes that Rachel Ray does on her cooking show. The point is, the possibilities are endless, especially plenty of creative minds willing to entertain the mass audience.


There’s a reason why entertainment is the industry of the stars. People spend a great deal of time and money to see entertainment, whether in television or the big screen. It’s these artists and what they do that make these people turn on their television. They make them happy or sad, and that’s just what everyone need is it? A little dose of disposable emotion everyday is enough.

People tend to listen and believe with whatever television tells them. Knowing how to hypnotize someone is such a big feature for television. It might not always be a good thing but it does make us feel better. Sometimes all we need is psychological motivation to think big, act right, and be happy. Or maybe it’s just there to simply entertain us, whatever you want to believe.


Everyone loves something about television, and there’s no way people won’t be intrigued with what they see, especially if it’s news or entertainment. It’s fun to watch when you’re alone, and even more fun with friends or family. It knows how to hypnotize someone, people.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide The First Genocide of the 20th Century

Herero chained during the 1904 rebellion


The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered the first genocide of the 20th century. It occurred from 1904 until 1907 in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia), during the scramble for Africa.


On January 12, 1904, the Herero people, who, led by Samuel Maharero had a treaty placing them under the protection of German South-West Africa, launched attacks on German police and farms killing over a hundred people in German South-West Africa starting the Herero-German War. In August, German general Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and pursued them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans resulting finally in many dying from disease in concentration camps.

In total, between 24,000 up to 100,000 Herero perished along with 10,000 Nama. The alleged genocide was characterized by widespread death by starvation and thirst by preventing the fled Herero from returning from the Namib Desert. Some sources also claim the German colonial army to have systematically poisoned desert wells.

In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest attempts of genocide in the 20th century. The German government recognized and apologized for the events in 2004.




Nevertheless details of von Trotha's handling of the war, of the aftermath of the Battle of Waterberg and of the concentration camps are not universally accepted and neither is the claim that a genocide was planned or in some cases even took place. Brigitte Lau in particular has pointed to Marxist bias by DDR historian Horst Drechsler (Let us Die Fighting, London, 1908 translation) and claimed important factual errors, pointing amongst other things to his and other's reliance on a First World War British propaganda. Even Werner Hillebrecht who as recently as 2007 criticises Brigitte Lau's work at great length argues that there was no plotting to commit genocide, that even von Trotha "initially planned to take prisoners", but rather that when the logistical impossibility of dealing with tens of thousands of prisoners became apparent he let the desert deal with the problem. He says the German command is guilty of genocide because "They let it happen". Some studies have considered what motivation Germany could have to plan and instigate genocide of the Herero. It has been noted that although German colonists did seize and exploit much Herero/Nama soil, diamonds can not have been a motive as reports of their discovery do not begin until 1908.




Furthermore particular caution needs to be exercised in considering citations of abuse and atrocity by Germans in German South-West Africa before 1918 due to extensive First World War British propaganda including Report on the Natives of South West Africa and their Treatment by Germany published in 1918 which fabricated extensively and has quite innocently been quoted by historians ever since. It was later officially withdrawn and all copies ordered destroyed throughout the British Empire.

Background






he Herero were originally a tribe of cattle herders living in a region of German South West Africa, presently modern Namibia. The area occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.




In 1883, during the scramble for Africa, Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz purchased land from the Nama and, in August 1884, after some discussion with the British Imperial government, it was declared a German protectorate; at that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for white settlement. From the outset the Germans protectorate was involved in local fighting. Chief of the neighbouring Hereros, Kamaherero Maherero had made himself great by uniting all the Herero. He signed a treaty of protection with German protectorate against Khoikhoi in 1885 giving the Germans more land. This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against the Khoikhoi but it was reaffirmed in 1890. In 1890 Kamaherero's son Samuel signed a great deal more land over to the Germans in return for helping him to establish him as paramount chief. German involvement in tribal fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe, imperial colonial troops, to pacify the region.




Under German colonial rule natives were routinely used as slave laborers, and their lands were frequently confiscated and given to colonists, who were encouraged to settle on land taken from the natives, causing a great deal of resentment.




The only land seized and handed over to settlers and colonial companies, followed the Herero revolt. At this time restricted reservations were established for Africans. Eventually the area was to be inhabited predominantly by whites and become "African Germany"Over the next decade, the land and the cattle that were essential to Herero and Nama lifestyles passed into the hands of German settlers arriving in South-West Africa.

Revolts





In 1903, some of the Nama tribes rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi. A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904.




Unsurprisingly, one of the major issues was land rights. The Herero had already ceded over a quarter of their 130,000 square kilometres (50,000 sq mi) to German colonists by 1903, prior to the completion of the Otavi railroad line running from the African coast to inland German settlements. Completion of this line would have rendered the German colonies much more accessible and would have ushered a new wave of Europeans into the area. Marxist historian Drechsler states that there was discussion of the possibility of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land. Drechsler goes on to claim that in illustration of the gap between the rights of a European and an African, the German Colonial League held that, in regards to legal matters, the testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of one white man. Bridgman claims racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination.

Mark R. Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen however simply argue that having ceded so much land to the Germans in return for supporting his authority over the other Herero, Samuel Maherero found that they could not do so for him so that he started to loose control over the chiefs and he needed to seize that land back again to remain in control. Therefore when in 1903 the Governor Leutwin was away fighting the Bondelwarts Nama in the south Maherero launched his attack and seized the land.




A new policy on debt collection, enforced in November 1903, also played a role in the uprising. For many years, the Herero population had fallen in the habit of borrowing money from white traders at great interest. For a long time, much of this debt went uncollected and accumulated, as most Hereros had no means to pay. To correct this growing problem, Governor Leutwein decreed with good intentions that all debts not paid within the next year would be voided.In the absence of hard cash, traders would often seize cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, in order to recoup their loans as quickly as possible. This fostered a feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people, which escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the traders who were about to loose what they were owed.




The Herero judged the situation intolerable and revolted in early 1904. The timing of their attack was ideal. After successfully asking a large Herero tribe to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified and half the German troops stationed in his colony had been withdrawn. Led by Chief Samuel Maharero, they surrounded Okahandja and cut links to Windhoek, the colonial capital. Maharero issued a manifesto in which he forbid his troops the killing of Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved tribes as well as women and children in general.

Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from the German government in Berlin. Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed Supreme Commander (German: Oberbefehlshaber) of South-West Africa on 3 May, arriving with an expeditionary force of 14,000 troops on 11 June.




Leutwein was subordinate to the Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which reported to Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow while general Trotha reported to the military German General Staff, which was only subordinate to Emperor Wilhelm II.




Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder to achieve a political settlement. Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that:



“ "My intimate knowledge of many central African tribes (Bantu and others) has everywhere convinced me of the necessity that the Negro does not respect treaties but only brute force"


Genocide




General Trotha openly stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg:



“ "I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated, or, if this was not possible by tactical measures, have to be expelled from the country...This will be possible if the water-holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied. The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find the small groups of nation who have moved backwards and destroy them gradually." ”


Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11–12 August 1904 but were unable to encircle and eliminate the retreating survivors. The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero to break from the main body of the fleeing force and pushed them further into the desert and as exhausted Herero fell to the ground unable to go on, German soldiers acting on orders killed men, women and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops and deposed the following statement:



“ "I was present when the Herero were defeated in a battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all men, women, and children who fell into German hands, wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death. Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were shot down and bayoneted to death. The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get away with their cattle." ”


A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to Omaheke Desert, hoping to reach British territory of Bechuanaland; less than 1,000 managed to reach the British protectorate where they were granted asylum. In order to prevent them from returning Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 40 feet deep that were dug up in a vain attempt to find water. Maherero and between 500 to 1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he was accepted as a vassal of the batswana chief Sekgoma. On 2 October, Trotha issued a warning to the Hereros:



“ I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Hereros. The Hereros are German subjects no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer. I announce to the people that whoever hands me one of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000 marks for Samuel Maherero. The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube' (cannon). Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. I shall give the order to drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words to the Herero people.


He further gave orders that:




This proclamation is to read to the troops at roll-call, with the addition that the unite that catches a captain will also receive the appropriate reward, and that the shooting at women and children is to be understood as shooting above their heads, so as to force them to run. I assume absolutely that this proclamation will result in taking no more male prisoners, but will not degenerate into atrocities against women and children. The latter will run away if one shoots at them a couple of times. The troops will remain conscious of the good reputation of the German soldier."




Trotha gave orders that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert where their death from starvation, thirst and certainity was to be certain;Trotha argued that there was no need to make exceptions for Herero women and children, since these would "infect German troops with their diseases", the insurrection Trotha explained "is and remains the beginning of a racial struggle". German soldiers regularly raped young Herero women before killing them or letting them die in the desertAfter the war, von Trotha argued that his orders were necessary writing in 1909 that "If I had made the small water holes accessible to the womenfolk, I would run the risk of an African catastrophe comparable to the Battle of Beresonia"




The German general staff was aware of the atrocities that were taking place; its official publication, named Der Kampf, noted that:



“ This bold enterprise shows up in the most brilliant light the ruthless energy of the German command in pursuing their beaten enemy. No pains, no sacrifices were spared in eliminating the last remnants of enemy resistance. Like a wounded beast the enemy was tracked down from one water-hole to the next, until finally he became the victim of his own environment. The arid Omaheke [desert] was to complete what the German army had begun: the extermination of the Herero nation. ”


Alfred von Schlieffen who served as Chief of the Imperial German General Staff approved of von Trotha's intentions in terms of a "racial struggle" and the need to "wipe out the entire nation or to drive them out of the country", but had doubts about his strategy, preferring their surrender.




Governor Leutwein, later relieved of his duties, complained to Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction and ruining any chance of a political settlement. According to Professor Mahmood Mamdani from Columbia University, opposition to the policy of annihilation was largely the consequence of the fact that colonial officials looked at the Herero people as potential source of labor, thus economically important. For instance, Governor Leutwien wrote that:



“ "I do not concur with those fanatics who want to see the Herero destroyed altogether...I would consider such a move a grave mistake from an economic point of view. We need the Herero as cattle breeders...and especially as laborers.”


Having no authority over the military, Chancellor Bülow could only advise Wilhelm II that Trotha's actions were "contrary to Christian and humanitarian principle, economically devastating and damaging to Germany's international reputation."




After a political battle in Berlin between the civilian government and the military, Wilhelm II countermanded Trotha's decree of 2 October on 8 December, but the massacres had already begun. Upon the arrival of the new orders at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into concentration camps and given by the German state to private companies as slave laborers, and it has even been claimed exploited as human guinea pigs in medical experiments

Many Herero died later of disease, overwork and malnutrition.




Concentration camps




Survivors, mostly women and children, were eventually put in concentration camps, such as that at Shark Island, similar to those used in British South Africa during the Second Boer War. The German authorities gave each Herero a number and meticulously recorded every death, whether in the camps or from forced labor. German enterprises have been said to have been able to rent Hereros in order to use their manpower, and workers' deaths were permitted and even reported to the German authorities. Malnutrition, disease and forced labour killed an estimated 50–80% of the entire Herero population by 1908, when the camps were closed.




The mortality rate in the camps in 1908 reached 45%




The prisoners were fenced in, either by thorn-bush fences or by barbed wire, and people were typically crammed into small areas. The Windhoek camp held about 5000 prisoners of war in 1906. Food rations were minimal, consisting of a daily allowance of a handful of uncooked rice, some salt and water. As the prisoners lacked pots the rice they received was uncooked and indigestible; horses and oxes that died in the camp were later distributed to the inmates as food. As a result dysentery spread, in addition to lung diseases, despite those conditions the Herero ware taken outside the camp every day for labour under harsh treatment by the German guards, while the sick were left without any medical assistance or nursing care. A lethal combination of a high concentration of people in a small confined area, lack of medical attention, poor unhygienic living quarters, and lack of protective clothing contributed to the spread of diseases, such as typhoid, which spread rapidly.




Beatings and abuse were common, and the sjambok was often used to beat prisoners who were forced to work; a September 28, 1905, article in the South African newspaper Cape Argus detailed some of the abuse, with the heading: "In German S. W. Africa: Further Startling Allegations: Horrible Cruelty". In an interview with Percival Griffith, "an accountant of profession, who owing to hard times, took up on transport work at Angra Pequena, Lüderitz", related his experiences.



“ "There are hundreds of them, mostly women and children and a few old men ... when they fall they are sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang, with full force, until they get up ... On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child of under a year old slung at her back, and with a heavy sack of grain on her head ... she fell. The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well ... the woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went on with her load. She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the baby cried very hard." ”


During the war, a number of people from the Cape (in modern day South Africa) sought employment as transport riders for German troops in Namibia. Upon their return to the Cape, some of these people recounted their stories, including those of the imprisonment and genocide of the Herero and Namaqua people. Fred Cornell, a British aspirant diamond prospector, was in Lüderitz when the Shark Island camp was being used. Cornell wrote of the camp:



“ "Cold - for the nights are often bitterly cold there - hunger, thirst, exposure, disease and madness claimed scores of victims every day, and cartloads of their bodies were every day carted over to the back beach, buried in a few inches of sand at low tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out, food for the sharks.'' ”


The concentration camp on Shark Island, in the coastal town of Lüderitz, was the worst of the five Namibian camps. Lüderitz lies in southern Namibia, flanked by desert and ocean. In the harbor lies Shark Island, which then was connected to the mainland only by a small causeway. The island is now, as it was then, barren and characterized by solid rock carved into surreal formations by the hard ocean winds. The camp was placed on the far end of the relatively small island, where the prisoners would have suffered complete exposure to the strong winds that sweep Lüderitz for most of the year. The first prisoners to arrive were, according to a missionary called Kuhlman, 487 Herero ordered to work on the railway between Lüderitz and Kubub. In October 1905, Kuhlman reported the appalling conditions and high death rate among the Herero on the island. Throughout 1906, the island had a steady inflow of prisoners, with 1,790 Nama prisoners arriving on September 9 alone. In the annual report for Lüderitz in 1906, an unidentified clerk remarked that "the Angel of Death" had come to Shark Island. German Commander Von Estorff wrote in a report that approximately 1,700 prisoners had died by April 1907, 1,203 of them Nama. In December 1906, four months after their arrival, 291 Nama died (a rate of more than nine people a day). Missionary reports put the death rate at between 12 and 18 a day; as many as 80% of the prisoners sent to the Shark Island concentration camp never left the island.




There are accusations of Herero women having agreed to sex slavery as a means of survival. Dutch historian Jan-Bart Gewald of the University of Cologne has written that the Germans set up special camps for their troops and that many children were born of German fathers and Herero mothers.Trotha was opposed to contact between natives and settlers, believing that the insurrection was "the beginning of a racial struggle" and fearing that the colonists would be infected by native diseases.




Medical experiments




German scientist Eugen Fischer came to the concentration camps to conduct medical experiments on race, using children of Herero people and mulatto children of Herero women and German men as test subjects. Together with Theodor Mollison he also experimented upon Herero prisoners[ Those experiments included sterilization, injection of smallpox, typhus as well as tuberculosis The numerous cases of mixed offspring upset the German colonial administration and the obsession with racial purity. Eugen Fischer studied 310 mixed-race children, calling them "Rehoboth bastards"of "lesser racial quality". Fischer also subjected them to numerous racial tests such as head and body measurements, eye and hair examinations. In conclusion of his studies he advocated genocide of alleged "inferior races" claiming that "whoever thinks thoroughly the notion of race, can not arrive at a different conclusion".




Fischer's (at the time considered) scientific actions and torment of the children were part of wider history of abusing Africans for experiments, and echoed earlier actions by German anthropologists who stole skeletons and bodies from African graveyards and took them to Europe for research or sale.




Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he taught medicine to Nazi physicians. One of his prominent students was Josef Mengele, the doctor who made genetic experiments on Jewish children at Auschwitz.




According to Clarence Lusane, an Associate Professor of Political Science at American University School of International Service, Fischer's experiments can be seen as testing ground for later medical procedures used during Nazi Holocaust.




The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study complex issues of continuity between this event and the Nazi Holocaust,with some having argued that the Herero genocide set a precedent in Imperial Germany to be later followed by Nazi Germany's establishment of death camps, such as the one at Auschwitz.




Mahmood Mamdani writes that the links between the Holocaust and the Herero Genocide are beyond the execution of an annihilation policy and the establishment of concentration camps. Focusing on a statement written by General Trotha:



“ I destroy the African tribes with streams of blood... Only following this cleansing can something new emerge, which will remain. ”


Mamdani takes note of the similarity between the aims and desires of the General and the Nazis. In both cases there was a Social Darwinist notion of "cleansing" after which "something new" would "emerge".




Later Nazi use of "Lebensraum" and "Konzentrationslager" (concentration camp) suggests an important question: did Wilhelmine colonization and genocide in Namibia influence Nazi plans to conquer and settle Eastern Europe, enslave and murder millions of Slavs, and exterminate Gypsies and Jews?




The German experience in Namibia was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide and that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.




Number of victims




The German colonial authorities never conducted a census before 1904. A census performed in 1905 revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South-West Africa.




According to the 1985 United Nations' Whitaker Report, the population of 80,000 Herero was reduced to 15,000 "starving refugees" between between 1904 and 1907 In Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia by Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes a number of 100,000 victims is given. German author Walter Nuhn states that in 1904 only 40,000 Herero lived in German South-West Africa, and therefore "only 24,000" could have been killed.




Aftermath




With the closure of concentration camps all surviving Herero were distributed as laborers for settlers in the German colony, and from that time on, all Herero's over the age of seven were forced to wear a metal disc with the their labour registration number.




It took the German colonial government until 1908 to fully re-establish its authority over the territory. About 19,000 German troops were engaged in conflict, of which 3,000 saw combat, the rest were used for upkeep and administration; the German losses were 676 soldiers killed in fighting, 76 missing and 689 dead from disease. The costs of the campaign were 600 million marks, the normal subsidy of the colony was usually 14.5 million marks At about the same time, diamonds were discovered in the territory, and this did much to boost its prosperity. However, it was short-lived. In 1915, at the start of World War I, the German colony was taken over and occupied in the South-West Africa Campaign by the Union of South Africa, acting on behalf of the British Imperial Government. South Africa received a League of Nations Mandate over South-West Africa in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles.




Recognition




In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest attempts of genocide in the 20th century.




In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He also pointed out that special reparations were out of the question.




The Hereros filed a lawsuit in the United States in 2001 demanding reparations from the German government and the Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa.




On August 16, 2004, at the 100th anniversary of the start of the genocide, a member of the German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, officially apologized and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring amidst a speech that:



“ We Germans accept our historical and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time. ”


She ruled out paying special compensations, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia which currently amounts to $14m a year.




The von Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologized for the actions of their relative. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said:



“ We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took place 100 years ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time." ”


Peter Katjavivi, a former Namibian ambassador to Germany, demanded in August 2008 that the skulls of Herero and Nama prisoners of the 1904-08 uprising, which were taken to Germany for scientific research to "prove" the superiority of white Europeans over Africans, be returned to Namibia. Katjavivi was reacting to a German television documentary which reported that its investigators had found over 40 of these skulls at two German universities, among them probably the skull of a Nama chief who had died on Shark Island near Luederitz.