For nearly four centuries, the Atlantic slave trade brought millions of people into bondage. Scholars estimate that around 1.5 million people perished in the brutal middle passage across the Atlantic. The slave trade linked Africa, Europe and the Americas in a horrific enterprise of death and torture and profit. Yet, in the middle of the 18th century, as the slave trade boomed like never before, some notable European observers saw it as a model of free enterprise and indeed of ‘liberty’ itself. They were not slave traders or slave-ship captains but economic thinkers, and very influential ones. They were a pioneering group of economic thinkers committed to the principle of laissez-faire: a term they themselves coined. United around the French official Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759), they were among the first European intellectuals to argue for limitations on government intervention in the economy. They organised campaigns for the deregulation of domestic and international trade, and they made the slave trade a key piece of evidence in their arguments.
Read the rest here: Economics: Slavery as free tradeFAIR USE NOTICE
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Articles & Essays
Since the first encounter on the island of Ay Ay in November 1493 between the inhabitants and Christopher Columbus, "The People" occupying this space have fought to be free and continue to pursue our rights to Self-Determination. A People’s Historical Journey to Self Determination and Decolonization will focus on the events of freedom expressed by the inhabitants of the Danish West Indies which is today's Virgin Islands of the United States.
Articles and Essays are welcome and will grow throughout the years covering various historical facts that have influenced and still influence our journey to Self-Determination. Be free to engage us through your submitted articles or essays and ideas in achieving this goal. Your participation is vital to the overall outcome. info@aphj2sd.com.
Denmark cannot apologise for slave trade
Read the rest here: Denmark cannot apologise for slave trade
Economics: Slavery as free trade
The 18th-century thinkers behind laissez-faire economics saw slavery as a great example of global free trade
by Blake Smith
Analysis: Rothschild Francis and the Fight for Democracy
by Dale Francis Copyright © V.I. Source Publications, Inc.
Rothschild Francis was a civil rights leader in the Virgin Islands after the 1917 transfer from Danish to United States sovereignty. His foray into politics was born from a need to address the causes of the economic, social and political disparities that created undue hardships for Virgin Islanders.
To address those needs Francis considered the sociological and government ideals in the philosophy of prominent individuals as diverse as Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas and Karl Marx. Francis determined that civilian government and true democracy would best resolve the issues of social oppression inherent in the colonial systems.
Read the rest: Analysis: Rothschild Francis and the Fight for Democracy – Part 1
Justice and Restitution and US Constitution
By Carl Neb Ka Ra Christopher
October 01, 2008
Dear Honorable President Barak Obama, Members of US Congress, House of Representatives and Agents of the United States of America, the Nations and Sovereign Country-Nations of: Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Great Britain, France, Malta, The Vatican and the Holy Roman Catholic Church, Islamic Leaders of Mecca Arabia, Israelite Leaders of Aretz Israel, and other Nations, Institutions, and Entities, and Industrial World Powers et. al., we greet you all with the Natural and Universal Cosmic Principles of Justice, Wisdom, Natural Inalienable Rights of all Huemans, and Harmony in the Name of Our Great Mother-Father NETER-AWE-All Nature: The I Am That I Am-The ALL IN ALL:
First and foremost the only consistent and Real Sovereign Law that all huemans and all living beings must adhere to is the Great Law of Nature-Maat-Djehuty-Sesheta. All hueman and man-made laws are but human idols and graven images. The Law of Nature is the only Sovereign Law of the Universe and Cosmos. No hueman thoughts of man- made laws and the feeble, inconsistent, and at times diabolical, selfish and greedy hueman minds can ever supersede the Great Law of Nature. The Law of Nature was, is and forever will be in all perpetuity.
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The Right to Self-Determination in an Imposed Democracy
As the Virgin Islands of the United States begins celebrating its one hundredth year transfer from one colonial master to another, there are still matters that remain unresolved and unsettled. The definitions of self-determination and democracy seem complimentary in an ideal, philosophical world perspective where every individual is seen and treated equally and guaranteed equal rights to life and freedom to choose a political status without external interference. However, the concepts of democracy and
self-determination, take on different meanings based on the point of view of the observer or participant. This is particularly important to those of us in “non-self governing” territories held under colonial domain.
Read more here: The Right to Self-Determination in an Imposed Democracy
The Way of Self Knowledge Is A Guide to Self Determination
By Sa Ra Neb Asarkasaamsu Raasar Ra II KaRaPernuntuHerishetapaHeru, Her-TepSesh Per Ankh Em Smai Tawi
For St. Croix Farmer’s in Action Forum Presentation on Self Determination and Emancipation July
“The time has come to return home; if not physically, then mentally. In another man’s best home, I’m homeless; but in my worst home, I’m the sole Owner.” Dr. Ben
Question: How Does Self Knowledge Guide the People of the Virgin Islands to the Wisdom of Self Determination and Reparation? We as the Descendants of Indigenous AfRaKan and Caribbean People did not have our Historical Beginnings with the Invasion and Conquest of our Collective Motherland and Homeland and our Diasporan Lands of the West Today Called Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. Our Beginnings and Origin is as Old and Ancient as the First Human Beings that Originated and Evolved on this Earth by the Laws of Nature and the Great Mother Father of All Nature. “In all likelihood, present-day African peoples are in no way invaders come from another continent; they are the aborigines. Recent scientific discoveries that show Africa to be the cradle of humanity increasingly negate the hypothesis of this continent being peopled by outlanders.” (Black Africa,CheikAnta Diop pg.3)
Read the rest @ The Way of Self Knowledge Is A Guide to Self Determination
US Virgin Islands in 2017
US Virgin Islands in 2017
The presentation below entitled “US Virgin Islands 2017” was made by Dr. Carlyle G. Corbin, International Advisor on Democratic Governance, to a conference on Virgin Islands 2020 sponsored by the Virgin Islands Institute of Development which convened at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on 27th June 2008. The text of the presentation was made available by permission.
Introduction
Barring any extraordinary political developments over the next several years, the US Virgin Islands in the year 2017 will observe the centennial under United States jurisdiction as an unincorporated territory. This is less than a decade away. The constitutional conventions in the territory which convened in the 1960s and 1970s to draft a local constitution based on the present political status did not culminate in a local constitution. Subsequent attempts to deal with the broader picture of modernising the political status of the territory in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in an inconclusive referendum in 1993. Thus, the US Virgin Islands reverted to the current status quo, and is one of sixteen remaining dependent territories/colonies in the world nine years before the centennial.
Read "The presentation below entitled “US Virgin Islands 2017" here
Decolonising The Mind: Traditional African Spiritual Systems Continue To Be Misunderstood, Even As They Thrive
There are few religions as globally misunderstood as African traditional religions. Whether it is being wrongly labelled voodoo, juju or witchcraft, indigenous African faith systems tend to be associated with darkness, animal and human sacrifices, violence and general backwardness. Few people are aware that Voudou (rather than “voodoo”) is a faith based on harmony with nature, one that expressly forbids the killing of another being, or that most African faith systems believe in the concept of one God above all other divinities and deities, who function much as a pantheon of saints.
From the early colonial period till today, misinformation about African indigenous spiritualities is spread and believed as truth. From Nigeria to Kenya, it is disturbing how we have come to accept the intolerant Western views of African indigenous spiritualities, believing that we are saved because we no longer engage in “idol worship”. We ignore the influences that these systems have had and continue to have on the way Africans worship and conduct their everyday lives. Rather than viewing them as the complex systems they are, we have debased them to nothing but a series of sacrifices.
Read Decolonising The Mind here.
Letter to The National Museum of Denmark
December 27, 2016
Holiday Greetings National Museum of Denmark,
Thank you for providing the presentations on different aspects of Danish history as well as making them available on the worldwide web for public consumption. The variety of information is quite amazing and shows the pride and time taken in sharing this material.
While Denmark has kept very good records of the achievements of its society, there is no acknowledgement of Denmark’s contribution to the African Holocaust on both sides of the Atlantic. This mass murder or genocide reduced to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade destroyed families as well as culture centers. Denmark’s use of the term “the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade” cheapened the rape, plunder and pillaging of stolen resources like a trade deal gone bad. The Holocaust of Enslavement obliterated products and producers of culture: cities, towns, villages, libraries, great literatures (written and oral), and works of art and other cultural creations as well as the creative and skilled persons who produced them.
Read the rest of Letter to The National Museum of Denmark here
FRUITS-SEEDS OF THE AFRAKAN TREE OF LIFE:
Revisiting Kwanzaa and the First Fruits Harvest Celebration and the
Indigenous Afrakans Cultivation Plan & Responsibility
Preparation-(Preparing the seeds and soil)
We first must give reverence to the One and All our Great Mother Father All Nature the Ancestor of all Ancestors and to all those Ancestors who have made the way for us to be here, for we are the fruits of their Afrakan Tree of Life. We must also give thanks to illustrious Dr. Maulana Karenga and his wife Tiamoyo Karenga and their family and associates for initiating the Kwanzaa and the Nguzu Saba Principles as well as all those teachers and sages that guided their minds to create Kwanzaa. Special mention must be made of Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, Dr. Cheik Anta Diop, Dr. John Henri Clarke, Drusilla Dunjee Houston; Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and many others who were themselves fruits and nutrients of the Afrakan Tree of Life experience and cultivated their seeds and essences of wisdom and experience in our beings as who we are. We are because They are, and They are because All is.
Read the rest @ Fruits_of_the_Afrakan_Tree_of_Life