By N Oji Mzilikazi
7 August 2016
Power respects power. Economic empowerment/economic success lends itself to accessing power.
Failure of a race, ethnicity or community to be empowered economically ensures they remain powerless, weak, marginalised, exploited, and the footstool of others.
Economics is at the heart of anti-Black racism…
Black History Month: Effective leadership
By N Oji Mzilikazi
February 9, 2012
(Originally published in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 22, Number 03)
The Purpose of Education for Black People
By N Oji Mzilikazi
(Originally published in Montreal Community Contact Volume 21, Number 21)
October 13, 2011
The western educational system was designed to serve the majority population; ensure white hegemony, their enjoyment of privilege and hierarchy reproduction. They built their nationalism and world views of themselves though historically biased and reworked narratives. Contributions of non-white ethnic minorities were relegated to footnote status and overlooked by mainstream histories…
Why Emancipation Observances Matter
By N Oji Mzilikazi
(Originally published in Montreal Community Contact Volume 21, Number 18)
September 1, 2011
…Emancipation matters because it marked a decisive legislative, political and social shift in the lives of Blacks. It was the taking up one’s bed to walk…
…Annually, Canada commemorates Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is more than paying tribute to the soldiers who fell to preserve our freedoms. It psychologically reminds the society that the sacrifice of one’s life for country is the ultimate demand of citizenship. That perhaps one day each would be called upon to fulfill that unspoken oath.
There is no day of remembrance or memorial for the untold millions of Africans who through enslavement or not, contributed towards the building of our nation/other nations. There is no day of remembrance or memorial for the untold millions of Africans who died on route to the New World.
Emancipation observances are our Days of Remembrance. It is letting our ancestors know they are not forgotten. It is acknowledgement of our debt to them, honouring their denied humanity. It is symbolic of racial commitment, empowering and moving the race forward.
My hope is we can move Emancipation forward to the point where people of African descent would gladly take time off from work for its commemoration.
Emancipation 2011: On Blacks Being A Cursed Race
By N Oji Mzilikazi
(Originally published in Montreal Community Contact Volume 21, Number 17)
August 18, 2011
For as long as I can remember, the trials and tribulations of people of African descent; our victimisation, failures, messing-up, misdeeds, missing out on opportunities, manifestations of self-hate et al, was credited to Blacks being biblically cursed…
Internalization of that blasphemous credo is at the heart of our psychological and racial incapacitation, the all too common culture of diminished expectations, our dysfunction, disunity, educational and economical poverty, impotence, lack of inner conviction, will-power and belief in us as a people, our abilities and in our potential…
Emancipation 2011: Renewed Songs of Liberation
By N Oji Mzilikazi
(Originally published in Montreal Community Contact Volume 21, Number 16)
August 4, 2011
…Do not shop in places where salespersons do not care to serve us or pretend we are invisible. Avoid doing business with large chains that do not hire us…