Midweek Edutainment #6

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Habari Gani watu wangu!

Welcome to the sixth edition of Midweek Edutainment below. I look forward to seeing some of you this Saturday for our reading through the remainder of Blueprint For Black Power, Chapter 3.

Understanding Sudan's turmoil

Sudan’s government is fighting against an entity called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). You will know them by their more famous name, Janjaweed which is Arabic for Jinn (Demons, Devils) on Horseback. The Janjaweed were notorious a decade ago for their reign of terror in the region of Darfur. Confusingly at the time (for me at least) these Black Africans saw themselves as Arabs and superior to non-Arab Africans. Anyway, as you’ll read below, the Janjaweed owes its existence largely to none other than Muamar Gaddafi. Click on the link below for a detailed breakdown.

African Indigenous Rice: Oryza Glaberrima

Amidst my current health and nutrition re-awakening, I recently cooked some black rice that had been hibernating in my cupboards. I loved it and so did my boys (well, one of them at least). I did a bit of revision into the nutritional value of black rice (it’s far more nutritious than white rice, and even trumps brown rice). While doing so, I learned that all the rice most of us eat is of the Oryza Sativa family which was first domesticated in China. There’s another species called Oryza Glaberrima which was domesticated in Africa. The video below gives a good insight into this African rice.

Powered by Nyame!

Kwasi Konadu has been making YouTube videos for the past several months on his channel Powered By Ancestry. If you haven't already, please check it out. He has just announced a change of channel name to Powered By Nyame. He explains his reasoning in the video below. It's as thought-provoking as ever from the good brother.

Are Seed Oils the key driver of modern disease?

I’ve been watching lots of nutrition-related videos lately, including lots from the Low-Carb/Keto Diet camp. While I don’t necessarily fully subscribe to their approach as yet, I find a lot of their points very interesting and at times quite compelling. In this video, a case is made that the increased consumption of seed oils aka “vegetable oils” is the key driver of modern sickness. Definitely worth at least considering.

Jazz, but not as you know it!

Finally, please check out this live performance from a UK-based group called Sons of Kemet. I only learned about them last year and, just my luck, they had just announced that they were going on an indefinite hiatus! It was thanks to them that I started to open my eyes and ears to Jazz, a music that I had dismissed for decades. I had allowed myself to see Jazz as being all about old dudes in suits playing tepid, lounge music to sleepy audiences of white folks. This performance is anything but that. Since finding these guys, I have been gradually listening to a whole range of classics from Coltrane, Miles, Alice, and more. Thankfully I’ve got so much more to taste in coming years!