Singer Leona Lewis
What with it being Black History Month in the UK, The Metro newspaper have compiled their very own list of 50 top black heroes.
Readers can help crown this year’s winner in a contest organised by Metro and City Hall to mark Black History Month.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has urged people to vote for their heroes from a shortlist ranging from campaigners and religious leaders to sports stars and musicians.
Many have strong links to the capital, including Hackney-born singer Leona Lewis, who topped the poll for most influential woman last year, footballer Rio Ferdinand, from Peckham, and novelist Zadie Smith, from north-west London. Continue Reading…
The list also includes MOBO (Music of Black Orgin) Awards founder Kanya King, Dame Shirley Bassey (from what I understand Dame Shirley won’t want any part of this. She has been running away from her African roots for over seventy-years. Plus the woman performed in South Africa during the Apartheid era and totally dismissed the Civil Rights movement. She is no hero ), actress Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Idris Elba and Barack Obama.
The article then goes on to quote Mayor Boris Johnson who said,
Black people have made a massive contribution to history over the centuries and his stunning exhibition showcases the rich variety and reach of their influence in so many different fields.
‘It covers well over two hundred years of history and celebrates truly iconic black men and women of all ages, who have inspired so many with their magnificent achievements.’
Click HERE to view the full list.
I look at some of the individuals on the list and then read Boris’ words and just end up laughing for a multitude of different reasons.
Your thoughts please…
Categories: UK News
MAD NEWS UK 
.
Ty stop that! HAHAHAHA.
“Black people have made a massive contribution to history over the centuries”
No, we have made THE CONTRIBUTIONS that has made YOUR(Europeans) HISTORY of wealth possible, Boris boy.
I stand corrected, we have made the ONLY contributions to history, others have simply just copied or stolen and claimed it of themselves and for themselves. How can you be living in caves and mountains one minute, then all of a sudden you have become overnight geniuses in all areas of engineering, technology, agriculture, materials, skills etc? Something here just doesn’t add up.
Janice
Goto to back to you on this but here’s this to be going on with but this wouldn’t be the same Boris Johnson who slashed the budget for Black History Month by 92.4% in 2009 to a total London wide budget of £10k.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/17/boris-johnson-slashes-events-funding
The guys got some gall.
That’s one of the reasons why I am laughing hard.
like i said .
Any “greatest black people” list that doesn’t include my president, The Honourable Cde Robert Mugabe, isn’t a list worth taking note of. He fought for us during the liberation war, gave us back our ancestral land that was forcibly taken from us by colonialists (the only African country to ever do such), gave us back control of our resources, turned Zimbabweans into the most educated people in Africa AND achieve the highest literacy rate (94%) in Africa..and most importantly, break the slave mentality.
How is Nelson Mandela considered a great man?? What did he do for Africa or South Africa in particular besides spend 27yrs behind bars?? His ex wife, Winnie Mandikizela-Mandela, single handedly kept the struggle going on. South Africans feel betrayed. Their foreign policy is aligned to please foreign and local whites. 92% of prime farm land is still in white hands. 98% of resources are owned by whites.He did nothing to address the colonial injustices. All he did was forgive those who imprisoned him and then TOTALLY forgot what South Africans fought for. Black South Africans are on the verge of taking the land back from whites ‘Zimbabwe style’. Why? Because Mandela DID NOT do anything!
Then we have the little demonic Archibishop Desmond Tutu who goes around threatening to ‘fast and pray people out of power’. The little man did absolutely NOTHING for South Africa during and after liberation war. All he does is dance like a demon at concerts and talk crap.
Why is Obama on that list? What exactly has he done? Blacks are being MURDERED MERCILESSLY in their hundreds in Libya as you read this and the fool just sits and says nothing.Absolutely NOTHING! More blacks are arrested in Washington DC than those that graduate!! He is a disappointment to many Africans who thought America’s policies would change for the better. How wrong were we?
Is this the same Boris Johnson that said this????
“For 10 years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party.”
NOT FORGETTING!!!
Boris Johnson has apologised in public for calling black people “piccaninnies” and referring to their “watermelon” smiles.
Oh yes, he’s the one to talk about Black History. Dyam Ass!
Speaking on the fraudster known as Obama(real name Barry Soetoro), I stated from the beginning that this guy was going to improve nothing but was going to make things worse and lo and behold, he has taken America into more wars than any other president in history.
This one goes out to the nay sayers who were telling me to “give the bloke a chance to settle in”. Change, change, but no body bothered to ask Barry what kind of change he was talking about. Obviously we know what kind of change he was planning to bring in, change for the worst upon the general public. From day one I was saying that this guy was trouble and that he will make it more difficult for black people, in fact he would do absolutely nothing for blacks. Don’t forget, Barry is only 6% African. His blood is 50% white and 44% Arab:
I think the US were always heading in the direction that they were in now, no matter who was their leader in chief. Bush messes up, bring in the black guy to take the fall when it all goes to shit. What is happening in the US was and is inevitable!
@Verbs..sorry he did nothing of the sort! Most of what is going on right now was here when he took office. Now he would have been able to do some things …if he had not and still is being opposed at every action. So no not totally true… And if you already know when you have an opposition of hate and bigotry….they will do anything to insure he doesn’t succeed. No matter how much Black blood he has he is a Black man. I met the man many time in past years and his Blackness is not nor have ever been in question to me. If he could do for the Black Americans he would believe that. And that is why he being elected for another 4 years is so important… then you will see what he really can do. Don’t believe the hype…of what you hear in the media. So some that you say is true…but there is always a much bigger picture… Ok if you don’t agree we will discuss it over the phone.lol! Peace
@ Moreno
Bro, you have to understand that the presidential seat is a masonic seat. Obama is simply a willing puppet of the multi national corporate world. He is not in control of anything and if he ceases to follow the instructions of his masters, he will get what Kennedy got. That is what happens to presidents who actually decide to take control. Reagan also got a little taste of what happens when you step out of line just a little bit.
The issue here is that I said that this guy would do nothing for black people before he got in office, I was correct in my prediction. I also stated that he would not keep a single promise that he made pre election, I was also correct in that prediction. I also stated that he would not withdraw the troops from Afghanistan and Iraq but would make up excuses to keep them in those countries for longer, lo and behold, now the troops are to remain in those countries and more forever. That in my books is a clear example of a liar. I also stated that he would enter into more wars and look, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and soon to be Syria and Iran. It is interesting to note that all of these countries are surrounding the land of Israel which is another chapter and story within itself.
No birth certificate, a false name, not born in the US, born in Kenya as per the testimony of his own grandmother therefore making him not qualified for the US presidential seat, raised in Indonesia and not Hawaii, seedy relations in the past with the homosexual Larry Sinclair and the white horse and many other anomalies, bro, you currently have got an illegal alien seating in the presidential seat. Check out http://www.obamacrimes.com and see what other multitude of anomalies are attached to this guy.
If you are going to defend what was already there when he took office then ok, I can give you that even though him not rectifying the wrongs 3 years later is still very suspicious and questionable, but what he has no excuse for is the extra mess that he has brought the US into, and he still isn’t even finished wrecking the country yet. The banks plunder the country and he has rewarded them for doing it via bailouts????
Let us not get caught up on the colour issue and let us just call out his actions as they are, he is a fraud, a liar, a warmonger and a murderer simply put. We’ll definitely have to talk more on this one over the phone,lol. Respect bro.
Just where is that birth certificate, eh Barry?:
@verbs… First off he did produced the birth certificate. That is old new bro…unless you know something i don’t.. Now i must admit you do have a lot of valid points… That is for sure. But let me ask you this bro… why….i say why… do you always have your brother from a different mother always having to do some damn research.lol! I will check it out bro and will see what is up. Another thing bro you got me again…you seem to have gotten to know ya boi well.. Because i was thinking on the colour issue…. You know me…bro i’m going to have to switch it up a bit on the next convo.lol! Peace brother….will check it out… Man but i’m hoping your azz is wrong just to i can say ha! haaaaaaaaaaaa LMBAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mumia Abu Jamal, extraordinary activist, award winning journalist, and spokesperson for prisoners’ right and anti-death penalty movment, must be added.
@ Moreno
Indeed bro, he produced A birth certificate. Still, the certificate he produced was later proven to be fraudulent………yet again. The thing that sticks out in my mind is the length of time it has taken him to bring forward some sort of paperwork. If your paperwork is in order then you would have no problem bringing it forward promptly. Don’t you find it kind of suspicious that he has taken so long to address this issue?
You know me already bro, I have to keep dropping the nuggets, people must be informed as to what is really going on. We all have fragments of truth to bring to the table, all I am doing is just presenting the potion of fragments that I have discovered so far. On this Obama character, research is paramount and must be done. Nobody has any idea who this guy really is. Be warned, you may not like what you will find when it comes to this man.
I had to come out against him from the beginning because I know how the presidential seat is run, who sponsored his campaign(Wall Street, he got 3 times the sponsorship money Mc Cain received) and what agendas he would carry out. I also knew that my people would be drawn in by him because he was specifically brought in at a time when American blacks were losing faith in the system(not that black people should have faith in any European run system to begin with), to draw them back into the illusion of inclusion. I encourage you to watch that documentary The Obama Deception, it will show you the real roll of presidents and who really runs the show.
Peace bro, we’ll chat soon as always,lol.
I LOVE the random, unexpected diatribe between Verbs2011 & moreno on Obama. LOLZ I’ll say nothing about Metro and Boris’ “black heroes” list
@Tahirah……sorry..lol! Verbs is my boi!!!
For real, just sharpening swords.
Is Guantanamo Bay still operating?? Didn’t the long legged mac daddy confidently tell us that he’d “shut it down in under a year”.
Would i be correct if i were to say that George Bush had more blacks in his government than this long legged mac daddy?? He had Condomlezzie Rice and Colin Powell and a few others.. Who has the long legged mac daddy got besides…uhm…er…Bill Clinton??
Barack. To hell with you, Nelson Mandela and the demonic Archbishop Desmond “Deputy Jesus” Tutu!
lol too funny!!!! Ok Janice
The question is who are Boris Johnson and his City Hall officials to select black heroes for us? Are we not capable of choosing our own heroes? Yet the Mayor’s office thought fit to select what they believe are the people that black people should look up to, encouraging us to go and vote for one of those his office selected. This is a complete insult to black people in general.
Black History Month is a farce that continues to help maintain a segregated society in Britain and it is nothing more than an olive branch to compensate for the refusal of the establishment in this country to acknowledge the contributions black people have made to western civilisation for thousands of years now. By maintaining Black History Month they are telling us we will continue to ignore black history from the national curriculum but you can have Black History Month and moreover we will select your heroes for you. If you noticed the list there is not a single black radical among them but “soft targets” that are deemed acceptable to whites. What does Thandie Newton, Idris Elba and Leona Lewis have to do with black history? I thought Black History Month should be about a celebration of Black History and not a celebration of a bunch of current celebrities who have done nothing to advance the welfare of Blacks. Every year they wheel out more or less the same bunch of people to shove down our throats whilst continuing to ignore the contributions that black people have made to make this country great.
The idea of Black History Month was inspired by Carter G. Woodson, who initiated National Negro Week in America. What Woodson aspired to was to enshrine Black History into the social agenda because it was being ignored by the establishment in the United States, so that it would eventually become a part of mainstream education. However, with Black History Month we have moved away from lobbying and become accepting of the charade that takes place once a year in the month of October in this country. Woodson would perhaps turn in his grave to see what his idea has been turned to and that we are no further forward in getting Black History to be entrenched in mainstream education.
It goes without saying that without a past we as a people have no future. Our youths are disillusioned because they do not know themselves and where they have come from. This lack of sense of self and identity is what contributed to the riots we have seen across this country in recent times. It is our responsibility as a people however to teach our youths about their past. Take them on that Sankofic journey of self-awareness and identity across the great Black African civilizations along the Nile delta; the great civilisations of Kush in ancient day Sudan extending up to the kingdom of Sheba in Yemen; down to the ancient stone walled cities of Great Zimbabe and across to the ancient kingdoms of Benin, Shonghai, Djenne and Timbuktu where one of the oldest universities in the world once stood. We cannont leave it up to the white establishment to school our youths and educate them in their history, it is up to us to do so. Teach them about the idea of Sankofa – which means you do not know where you are going until you know where you are coming from. Is it little wonder why most of our youths today are lost?
Know thyself!
@Henry…..well said i must say. But i do think Black History is needed every year. I look at it like this as we say over here in the States….365 Black. It is needed just on the basis that our history is not taugh anywhere. And even though it may be only for a month …that is given…sort to speak… You do go away with learning something…just like i did reading your post… And things Verbs2011,Miss Lala,Sarah,Terra and even Gary said as well…And there are some comments that don’t even warrant a response. But knowledge is power so the more you know the more aware you become. History is history weather is it Uk Black History on USA Black History..it is still all Black History. And right you are Know thyself.. Funny enough that is one of my emails addresses…. And for me just coming back from Washington…being there for the Dr. Martin Luther King dedication…has even more so renewed my sense of pride. As well as making me want to continue my fight for equality in this world. This experience was amazing!!! All of these beautiful Black people in UNITY…just paying respect…..
Moreno,
I didn’t mean to imply that we shouldn’t have a time like this when we can globally put black history in the limelight. But the point I was making though is that what we have today as Black History Month is a mere shadow of what Woodson intended. Black History Month has become so commercialised and most of the focus on Black History is being lost in activities that do little or nothing to promote it. Some of the activities in schools for example are designed to perpetuate myths about Africa’s past and the history is usually confined to the time period since slavery. It is as if prior to slavery blacks did not make any contributions to world civilisation and this is not true. So my point was in these cases we should educate ourselves and our children rather than rely on these watered down activities to educate our people. The Martin Luther King dedication must have been a powerful experience for you but we do not have anything close to that here in the UK. We are “told” instead to celebrate Jazzie B (a dreadlocked DJ and front man for a music group) and people like that whilst they keep people like Marcus Garvey hidden from view.
@Henry Now that you put it that way i totally agree. I mean we have and will continue to contribute to this world. And as you said even before slavery. People really don’t talk about Black people post slavery. And now that you mention it…tell me more about it. I would really like to know. I believe knowledge is power….but more so knowledge of self is even more powerful. So hit me up with some of that knowledge. I want to know, I’m not one of those who want to know about a certain time in life…i would love to know it all. I know that’s not really possible… But you feel me. And i wish Black History was celebrated 365 days as we say here. But it is not and i wish more Black people would have pride in who we are and what we have done thus far. It would be cool to meet Black people who are not so damn concern about what the white man thinks of them. So much so that their every breath it about pleasing them. I am so over people like that…then they want to argue about why. And all i do is just look at them like they are fools. Because they have no basis for their argument. Other than being brained washed…. But I am learning that the way I think is not always the right way. But it is my way….trying to open up a bit more and see an even more vivid picture. Because sometimes I can be a bit hard on people…. Mainly because I am very …very passionate about our people. So this brother over is learning. As I said the past weekend was amazing! Just Peace and unity with Black people paying respect to what was done by MLK. Met some very interesting people to say the least. And I’m just glad I didn’t miss this event…it was worth the 12 hour drive from Chicago with friends. So brother with that being said thanks for making me understand what you were saying. It’s funny though…it’s like who I was post this weekend …is a different person now. Just to the point of opening up my mind so…. Peace…and feel free to get me straight anytime.lol!
Moreno,
I can certainly share with you some of what I have learnt over the years about the history of Black people. There is a wealth of information out there and I have only scratched the surface so far. It is quite empowering though to learn about one’s past because it dispels the racist myths that we have been brainwashed with over the past few centuries. You have to be open to receive this type of information though as it can at times be quite shocking when you contrast with what you learnt or thought. The racists myths were propagated however to keep our people under subjugation particular through the time of slavery – read Willie Lynch the Making of a Slave to see what I mean. Africans did not come from monkeys nor did they live in trees as you shall soon find out.
One of the first myths to deal with is that blacks have contributed nothing to modern civilization. Modern civilization is attributed to so-called Greek philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Demosthenes, Aristotle and so on and modern theorists (sociologists) have used Eugenics to support the view that blacks have an inferior intelligence to whites. The truth however is that the foundations for modern civilization was established by black people. One of, if not the oldest civilization was established by black people in the Nile Valley in Egypt. By some accounts the civilization of Ancient Cush or Kush (Modern Sudan) is dated to be earlier than that of Egypt and this is going back some 10,000 B.C., thousands of years before there was any glint of civilization in Europe. Europeans at that time lived in caves and ate raw meat whilst Africans had in door running water. Racist historians however have tried to claim that the Ancient Egyptians were not black despite the fact that the tomb and temple paintings depict them with dark skin. Some have even claimed that the Egyptians were whites but had dark skin (presumably because of the sun). Herodotus, a Greek historian (dubbed the father of history) who travelled to Egypt in ancient times (between 100 and 300 BC) stated in his writings that the Egyptians were a Coptic people with dark oily skin and woolly hair. He however observed that due to intermarriage between people from around the Mediterranean that the skin tone was becoming lighter amongst some Egyptians. But Herodotus has been discredited by modern historians and you may ask why this is so. Evidently they do not want to accept the truth because this would give credence to the fact that the Ancient Egyptians were in fact black people and that blacks were capable of developing advanced civilizations.
The Greek philosophers were not philosophers at all but men who went to Egypt to study under the Egyption Mystery System (in the Mystery Schools). With there new found knowledge they went back to Greece to teach the people about the amazing things they had learnt in Egypt but they were branded as heretics and were persecuted by the people. As a result some of them who survived went into hiding and was teaching their new found knowledge in secret to a select few adherents. The truth is the Greeks revered the Egyptians and when they first encountered the wonders of Egypt they were in awe – Herodotus testifies of this fact. This is why you find that for each Egyptian god there is a greek equivalent because they borrowed extensively from the Egyptians. In fact the Greek civilization is said to be based off the Minoan people of Crete who were themselves a dark skinned people from North Africa.
It is said by some that the Aswan Dam was built to destroy the evidence of the Nubian (black) civilization which is thought to be even older than Egypt. This was located in an area between the Sudan and Egypt. But most of the evidence of this ancient black civilization has been wiped out by the Aswan Dam and the remnants of the people who lived in the area were displaced. These ancient Nubians may have actually helped to develop the civilization of Egypt. These ancient cities were centers of culture and learning. For example, the Nubians were well into Astronomy and in recent times an astronomical observatory was found in the Sudan dating back some 7000 years.
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the great library at Alexandria in Egypt. The city existed before Alexander the great went there and the name was obviously changed following his invasion and colonization of Egypt. European historians however would have you believe that the library was established by Europeans but why would Europeans leave their homeland to build a library in another country when none existed in their own country? The truth is that this library contained many of the scrolls that were written by the Ancient Egyptians which they used in their centers of learning (the Mystery Schools). This library was later burnt down and some claimed it was done by the Arabs whist the Arabs claimed it was done by the Greeks (or Europeans). But many of those books were stolen and taken to Europe. Today the oldest university in the world, the Al azhar, stands in Egypt and is more than 1,000 years old. But once again it is claimed that it was built by Arabs yet there were no universities in the Arabian peninsula prior to this university yet Arabs left their country to build one in Egypt – Simply put they didn’t have the intelligence to constitute one in Arabia but suddenly developed the intelligence once they entered Egypt. This again is simply more racist myths to hide the fact that the university is a residue of the ancient mystery schools that existed in Egypt but took over Arabic influences due to Arab conquests of Egypt.
I could go on but I will leave it there for now.
@Henry i really appreciate the knowledge brother. And I am aware of some of this, but there is a lot here I am not aware of. For me I just look at it like this, no matter what the world has taught about Black people I know they are not telling everything. And I know that it has been diluted so much that they are only scratching the surface. Plus as you stated they don’t want us to know anything of where we come from. Let alone anything that we did post slavery. And I know there is a wealth of knowledge out there that many know nothing about. But I do appreciate the fact that you have given me more to go on. Now when I have time I will have research more. The thing is time…I’m so busy with so many things don’t know when I will have time. When you have time hit me up at negroamor38@gmail.com would like to continue this further. Don’t want Janice getting annoyed with our back and forward convo.lol! She kind of got at me once…which was totally understandable… Hit a brotha up! Peace