Last weekend we hosted an international potluck with some friends. I asked everyone to pick a country and bring a dish representing its cuisine. My guests picked Jamaica, Tibet, Greece, Senegal, and Argentina. I picked Morocco because I have traveled there before and fell in love with tajine cooking; so much so that I purchased a tajine pot while I was there.
Tajine is the name of both the pot and dish originating from North Africa. The dish is generally made with meat, especially lamb or chicken. I usually make the meat versions whenever I attend Ramadan dinners. However, since most of my guests were vegetarians, I made a version with vegetables, and my dish also included dried dates, chickpeas and almonds.
Suffice to say, the dish was a hit with everyone. I was asked to post my recipe. It’s not really my recipe; I found it on YouTube. So, without further ado…
I even had time to make a Spanish tortilla Moroccan style! Enjoy!
Following up on last week’s post about black radicalism versus pacifism, I was reminded of The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. This landmark work has become the handbook for black radicalism in the United States and anti-colonial movements worldwide.
“The colonized man finds his freedom in and through violence,” says Fanon in his book. But are his words still relevant today, and how have social movements really benefited from this rhetoric? I plan to reread this book in the next few weeks, and give a more thorough analysis. I hope you will want to read the book too and follow along in the discussion.
In the meantime, you should check out this 2014 documentary called Concerning Violence, which is based on the book. Narrated by Lauryn Hill, the film uses archival footage from notable anti-colonial campaigns in Africa, and features interviews with Robert Mugabe, Amilcar Cabral and Tom Sankara.
Unfortunately, the full movie was just taken off of YouTube for free viewing, but you can still watch it in other places like Netflix. For now, check out the trailer here and an interview with the director below:
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. – Oscar Wilde
I want to start a new feature here where I not only discuss new books, but also not so new books. The point of this is to revisit older, classic books and look at their context through today’s political, social and cultural perspective. Sometimes when you reread a book you come away with different insight.
The first book in this series is Peniel Joseph’s 2007 book Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America, which is a chronology of black radical movers and shakers, such as Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Amiri Baraka, the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, amongst many others. When I first read this book nine years ago, America was in a different place racially. Barack Obama wasn’t president yet and the Black Lives Matter movement hadn’t begun.
I was inspired to reread this book because I recently attended a cocktail reception for young entrepreneurs of color, where I had a colorful conversation with an older black man named Morris about the role of black radicals in social movements of yesterday and today. We started talking about the new Jackie Robinson documentary and his civil right work. Like I said a few weeks ago, the baseball legend became a Republican activist, and even campaigned for Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. There is a part in the documentary where Robinson feuded with other black nationalists of that time who thought he was an “Uncle Tom.”
“Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King are the true black leaders we should be looking up to today, not the Panthers,” Morris said.
Morris told me that he lived through the civil rights movement in Georgia and has always been a supporter of non-violent activism. He also said that the Black Lives Matter movement would be better off taking lessons from the southern civil rights movement than from the black power movement.
After rereading the book, I came to the realization that both movements continue to be valuable for supporting civil rights objectives today. The book does a good job of not only highlighting the well-known players, but also lesser known, but equally important figures, like maverick journalist William Worthy, who openly defied the U.S. State Department by traveling to Cuba and China, and Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs, an interracial couple that used their Detroit home to organize other local black radicals.
I also enjoyed the discussion in the book about connecting American racism and other social justice and anti-colonial movements throughout the Third World. Sometimes we forget that racism isn’t just an American problem, and many black power activists joined forces with other international activists.
While it wasn’t discussed a lot in the book, I really appreciated the discussion about the role of women in the black power movement, most notably Katharine Cleaver, Elaine Brown and Angela Davis, and much of the misogyny they may have experienced.
Not surprisingly, many of the issues people of color faced in the 1960s, such as economic equality, education and the criminal justice system are still relevant today.
I also concluded that both movements bounced off each other, as both served a purpose and supported the larger scope of moving civil rights forward. Even other activists during that time recognized both of their contributions equally. For instance, while he was publically a supporter of Martin Luther King and many of the civil rights actions in the South, actor Harry Belafonte also financed a trip for Malcolm X to travel to Africa to discuss his Pan-Africanist views.
Black Lives Matter and other social movements today can learn a lot from both movements, especially the Black Panther Party, who also fought against police brutality. Like BLM, the Panthers were a grassroots organization of young people who felt that they needed to take action in their communities. Both groups understood the importance of mass communication to mobilize their followers; the Black Panthers had their new newspaper The Panther, while Black Lives Matter thrives on social media.
In conclusion, I would have to respectfully disagree with Morris. I don’t think we should discount Black Power. All of our past civil rights leaders, whether they were mainstream or more radical, have contributed greatly to moving our race forward.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a fascinating new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts called Megacities Asia. It is the museum’s largest exhibit so far to focus on contemporary art, which can be vehicles for discussions about current issues. All the art pieces gave commentary on urban consumption and sustainability – plastic, slum life, kitchenware, bamboo and what does it really mean to be green. A “megacity” is an urban area with at least 10 million inhabitants, and Asia is home to most of these large cities – Mumbai, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Delhi. Most of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Both China and India will have a billion people living in their respective cities by then too.
American cities are also growing. Statistically, the millennials are moving into cities at a higher rate than previous generations, as they don’t want to own or drive cars, and want to live in urban areas where there is more diversity and use their money instead on purchasing the latest “iThing.” This is a major contrast from previous generations, whose idea of the “American dream” was moving to the suburbs to buy a home and a car and raise a family. With bigger cities come bigger problems. All growing cities around the world have the same common problem of creating a balanced, sustainable living situation for these new urbanites. This will require new, innovative solutions to food, housing, health, environment and transportation.
Since I am a lifelong Bostonian who has many thoughts on improving transportation in my city, I thought I would share them here again. Many of these suggestions can also be used in other cities.
Car Bans: I notice in Madrid that cars are permanently banned in central, mostly congested areas. The city just extended this banned into residential areas. People who live in those neighborhoods can still drive their cars, but non-residents driving into those neighborhoods are fined. If there can’t be a permanent ban, why not just a temporary ban on weekends and holidays?
Incentives: Give people discounts or vouchers for using public transit or bikes. Personally, I would like a discount on my monthly MBTA pass for being a frequent user. (But knowing how the T operates, I don’t see this happening anytime soon, unfortunately…)
More Bike Sharing: The Hubway bikes seem to be mostly stationed in central, more touristy parts of the city. It would be great to have more bike sharing stations spread out in residential areas, especially in transit-starved Mattapan, Roxbury and parts of Dorchester.
More Bike Lanes: It would be nice to have more bike lanes, or in Copenhagen’s case, more bike “superhighways” dedicated to both commuter and recreational cyclists alike. I went riding on the Minuteman Bikeway recently and thought to myself why doesn’t Boston have more bike paths like this one.
More Pedestrian Zones: More green spaces, upgraded parks and wider sidewalks would be nice. As a runner, I would like to see more jogging paths and other recreational spaces that are designed to be easier on the knees when the foot strikes the ground, such as asphalt pathways.
Extend Subway Lines and Service: This might be a good time for the city to think about extending rapid transit into areas that really need it, like along bus routes 28 and 32. And, no, not another Silver Line; a real subway line is needed. I don’t know how this can be done, but more efficient public transit is needed in those areas. Also, if residents become more reliant on public transit, the MBTA should consider starting 24-hour service. (I know it’s a stretch, but we can all dream sometimes!)
Last weekend we hosted an international potluck with some friends. I asked everyone to pick a country and bring a dish representing its cuisine. My guests picked Jamaica, Tibet, Greece, Senegal, and Argentina. I picked Morocco because I have traveled there before and fell in love with tajine cooking; so much so that I purchased a tajine pot while I was there.
