The Displaced African &#187; My Heroes!

4) Malcolm X and Steve Biko

5) Anthony Robbins

6) 7 special people

7) Fidelis Wainaina

NB: This post has a lot of cussing via the music so if that turns you off then skip right by the music tracks and enjoy the article!

This series was only supposed to be seven articles long but I had to show love to Dead Prez. Like Malcolm, there are a lot of things these guys say that I just plain don’t agree with-in fact as I was researching for this article I realized that it was way more than I initially thought. Ultimately, though, I love these cats because their hearts are in the right place: they want to help their communities get free and liberate all oppressed people worldwide through the mic.

Biography

Please check out their Wikipedia page or their Amazon page or their official website for more information on Dead Prez.

Why I Love M1 and stic.man?

1) You Don’t Have to Listen to the Music for Just the Beat: How many of us listen to music ‘just for the beat’ knowing that if we were to absorb in just what the artist is saying (which we usually end up doing anyway) we would be much worse off than before the song began? You don’t even have to worry about that when listening to tracks such as Hip-Hop (below), Happiness and You are what you eat. Through these tracks they educate and encourage. So pop in a Dead Prez CD to get your mind fed by some educated, enlightened, compassionate, respect-worthy men.

2) They Educate and Encourage: Whether its through their books or their interviews or their CDs, Dead Prez strive to give information to their community that they can immediately apply to make their lives better. They talk about the education system, the economic structure, police brutality and a whole host of other issues that truly matter when it’s all said and don e. Case in point: You are what you eat (track is at the bottom of the article).

One of the things that absolutely convinced me that I had to do something on these guys was when I heard stic.man’s track ‘I Believe’ (track is at the end of the article). How many people are crippled by a whole host of addictions and need tracks such as ‘I Believe’ to inspire and encourage them?

3) They Unashamedly Criticize the Power Structure: Here they even make me uncomfortable. They are brutal and scathing in their critiques of the power structure and the way that those in power have trampled on and stepped on the little people. They don’t just restrict their critique to the US, as was shown when M1 did a collaboration with Tanzanian artist, Nakaaya called Mr. Politician (track at the end of the article)

4) They Release Intelligent, ‘Real’ Love Songs: When most hip hop artists sing love songs, in the back of my mind I usually think they are probably just doing it for commercial reasons. When Dead Prez release tracks such as ‘Mind Sex‘ and ‘Love You Can’t Borrow‘ you can see that these are people who respect women and respect relationships and are singing about a love that is coming from deep inside them. Plus, how great is the term ‘Mind sex’ for a stimulating, sexy, seductive conversation.

5) They Take Care of their Bodies: Listen to ‘You are what you eat’ one more time and tell me these aren’t brothers who focus on taking care of the bodies that God blessed them with.

6) They Don’t Waste Lyrical Space: Even some of my favourite rappers such as Talib Kweli and Mos Def and a lot of our local artists waste a lot of lyrical space bragging about who they are and what they can do. Dead Prez are probably the only artists I know who completely stepped away from that: I mean why talk about how great a lyricist and an MC you are when you can prove it by doing a hip-hop rendition of Animal Farm (below)

7) They Reached Out to Africa: First they declared that they were Africans, on the track ‘I’m an African’(below). Then,they did a track with Naakaya and then THEY DID A TRACK WITH KALAMASHAKA (below). For those who don’t understand who Kalamashaka are, they are the East African equivalent of Grandmaster Flash; they were some of the first guys to create the East African music industry, which has since exploded, and they did it with clever, socially conscious lyrics. Dead Prez took time to step out of the ghettos of the US and do collabos with some of Africa’s own gifts to music. For that they have my eternal respect.

Right now, I am just buzzing, and I could have said so much more about these two guys but I think I will just leave it right there and let their music speak for itself. Something to say? Even though you disagree, please express yourself.

You are what you eat, so eat blessed and spit out nothing but the blessed,

Mwangi

My Heroes: 7 Special People

Mwangi — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:37:49 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

4) Malcolm X and Steve Biko

5) Anthony Robbins

The second last article in yet another series. Yay! I want the final one, as always, to be special and so in the meantime I thought I would share with y’all seven other people who have really affected the way I think and why

Timothy Ferriss

If there is one clear idea I have gotten from Mr. Ferriss, it is: question conventional wisdom, it’s almost always wrong. Whether he is completely defying the rules of working life and commerce in the 4 hour work week, or defying the rules of biology, physiology and physical education via his numerous experiements or even winning national kickboxing championships, Mr. Ferriss reminds us that when we set our minds to achieving a goal, almost all the limitations that we are taught to exist under don’t really exist.

2) Arundhati Roy

The writer of the Booker Prize winning book ‘God of Small Things’. I like Arundhati because of her writing style: she writes as though she is a grown up child with a simplicity and a playfulness of language that made the foreign land of India captivating to me. Plus, I think she is a pretty beautiful- a.k.a. hot- woman who is not scared to stand up for the oppressed and downtrodden.

Noam Chomsky

There was a period in my life where I ate, breathed, slept and consumed nothing but Noam Chomsky and his work. At the very base core level, Mr. Chomsky reminded me, even when I forgot that there was such a thing as logic. He reminded me such simple ideas as:

a) Any institution, a government for example, though set up for the alleged purpose of serving people, must have its own purposes and agendas, if nothing else, its own self-preservation and continuance.

b) A human right is a human right is a human right. A law is a law is a law. Nations cannot blatantly break international laws that they agreed to or created and expect any respect when they demand that other people follow international laws.

c) When you want to gain a firm understanding of what is going on in a particular place, read up on it from a variety of different perspectives: you get a more complete picture.

Jay Abraham

The marketing genius himself. He has worked in a wide variety of industries and has experience in more fields than most people have in 7 lifetimes. And the conclusion he came to after doing that and being a marketing consultant for a couple of decades: the only way to succeed in business is by putting other people’s interests above your own and being a benevolent leader and confidante in your industry or area of expertise. I rarely see the nobility in business life: In Jay I see it.

Yaro Starak

The man who taught me just what the heck a Wordpress blog is. This man is living proof that it is possible to create your ideal lifestyle if you are willing to work at it. Deciding that he never wanted to be a full time employee he has built for himself a blog that makes him a full time income from 2 hours of work daily. He has also created a membership site that has put him in the upper income bracket for most employees. All this without working himself to the ground for someone else. He even admits that he doesn’t like to do things when there is too much pressure. Like Mr. Ferriss, he makes you question what you were taught.

African Women

Until I was into my adulthood almost all of my heroes were older African women. In this day and age when so many women are trying harder and harder to be like men (why ladies why?) I just have to say thanks to all the older women who nurtured me, took care of me, listened to me when I rambled for hours and made me feel safe, secure and loved. Lord knows where I would have been without that.

African Men

As I entered my adulthood that’s when I actually began to find men I respected. The operative word in that sentence: respect. Men taught me, respect and honour and how to stay true to your word ( I strayed from that one a bit for a while but I am now trying to live up to this ideal). For all the older cats who carried themselves with nothing but true class and restored my hope in the African male, thanks men. You grew me up.

Be blessed, bless others,

Mwas

PS: Dead Prez!!!! My heroes for real. I will let their music speak for itself

My Hero: Anthony Robbins

Mwangi — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:48:33 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

4) Steve Biko and Malcolm X

It was a dark lonely night in the CBD of Sydney, Australia. Ever since I had moved over from Melbourne,every day pretty much rolled with the same monotonous tone. Me alone looking for work, Me alone looking for a home, listening to personal development tape after personal development tape after personal development tape. As was in my character, I had hope and a vision deeply embeded in my heart but my composure was the one of someone trying to keep his head down and his feet moving forward slowly but steadily

A few days prior I had seen a poster in a cyber cafe:

Tony Robbins coming to Australia! Call me to get cheap tickets!

Upon calling I learned that the tickets would cost a “cheap” price of 1,600 Australian dollars. As expensive as that was, I wanted to go, I needed to go. After all, Tony Robbins was pretty much the catalyst that got me to Sydney in the first place. It was when I watched his interview with Larry King that I learned that a decision is defined as, “ cutting yourself off from all from all other possibility.” That’s when I decided that I had been sitting on my lazy butt for too long and it was time for me to move to Sydney and begin making my dreams and visions come true and cut myself off from any possibility of doing otherwise. It was also Tony who I had been listening to night after night after jobless, homeless night.

So there I was in the middle of Sydney cybercafe at about 2 a.m. wondering how I would convince my parents, cousins and friends to give 1,600 dollars to attend a self help seminar. Before crafting what I intended to be my most eloquent and convincing email to date, I decided to check what my fans had written in to me.One of the emails was from an old friend of mine from Melbourne who I hadn’t seen in forever. His email was short and sweet, I paraphrase:

“I am coming to Sydney to attend Tony Robbins personal development seminar. I have a free ticket for you if you want it. Please give me the names of five people who may also want a free ticket and the ticket is yours.”

Every part of my being literally exploded. In the middle of the cyber cafe I stood up and just started shaking and buzzing with pure joy (not a very comforting thing to be doing as a black man in the middle of the city at 2 in the morning, but I digress).

When I attended his seminar, I was still homeless, I had since found a job and so was able to pay for food and transport to the event (I had to use the train because my car a.k.a my home had broken down near a golf course in the Northern suburbs of Sydney). However those three days shook me, moved me and inspired me to the core. When that seminar ended, that was pretty much when the idea of the Displaced African began to come to fruition. In addition to that, the fire that burned deep within me of what I could be got stoked and I got energy to keep going.

That’s just one of the reasons that I am a huge fan of Mr. Robbins. In addition to that Mr. Anthony Robbins:

1) Has Self-Discipline

As he is fond of saying, this guy pretty much turned himself around. He took himself from a self-destructive broke, overeating fatty to the place he is today where he is featured on Forbes as well as a plethora of other magazines. My favorite epic tale is when a man has a battle with his demons…..and wins!

2) Man of Multiple Disciplines

Tony Robbins has pretty much dedicated his life to discovering why some people succeed at enormous levels whereas most people don’t. He didn’t just limit himself to a single area such as sociology or anthropology or psychology.His travels mean that he has learned and teaches in the areas of peak performance psychology, health and nutrition, relationships, exercise, effective stage communication, changing habits and interpersonal communication among a host of other disciplines. Renaissance men are very rare in this day and age and I think Tony Robbins may very well be one.

3) He Doesn’t Brag About His Intellect

Now considering all his knowledge in a wide variety of areas, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the man is an absolute genius. But you would never be able to tell. He always speaks to you in a language you can understand and strives to meet you where you are. He never tries to confuse you by using complex, grandiose language. Instead he helps you change your life while speaking a language you understand (He even swears during his seminars).

4) He Taught Me the Power of Modelling

If Tony had not revealed the idea to me, I never would have known about it. Once he did, it was so simple, I was surprised that I never would have thought of it. I have blogged about modeling in the past but in short:

If you want to succeed in any field of endevour, find people who are already succeeding there and copy their strategies.

Whereas success is much more complex than the above statement, tell me the above statement doesn’t make the road to success waaaaayyyyyy easier.

5) He Taught Me About the Power of One’s Mental State

Also in that category of things I never-would-have-known-but-were-so-simple-once

-I-knew-them-I-am-surprised-I-never-did: The power of one’s mental state.

Simply put:

Your behaviour is heavily affected by the mental state/emotional state you are in. When you are in a peak state (when you are in a state of flow) your decisions are of a much higher quality than when you are in a negative state such as depression.

Now I know a lot of you reading are thinking, “Well, duh!Of course when I am happy I act much better than when I am depressed.”

Well what Tony taught me is if you want to act right, simply get yourself in a good mood. He also reminded me that we are able to put ourselves in a good mood, or a peak state, at any moment in time, should we decide. Information such as this is HUGE! I can basically make myself act right by putting myself in a positive state at any moment in time. So simple to the point it’s almost unbelievable.

6) He is a Man of Passion

Living out here in the West, one of the things that drives me crazy is how this place can numb one’s emotions. When I look around, I feel as though so many people, myself included,are suppressing their emotions and instead putting on a social mask. Tony isn’t like that. Tony is exuberant, he is exciting. He speaks with his whole body and speaks with an intensity and definiteness of purpose that can’t help but suck one in. As a result, Tony is…..

7) The Best Speaker I HAVE EVER Seen Live

I have heard that the man is an obsessive compulsive perfectionist and I must say, having attended one of his seminars, it shows. Never in my life, have I had days go by so quickly and so many peak-emotional-highs in one day. He is a master of storytelling and an absolute gem when it comes to moving us emotionally to action. In my future I see myself maybe doing a little public speaking: take a little dash of Tony Robbins and mix it with a dash of Erwin Mcmanus and there’s no telling where I can go.

To learn more about Tony Robbins please check out his Wikipedia page or his Amazon page or visit Tony Robbins website.

Until then….be blessed, bless others and live with passion (Trademarked by Tony Robbins),

Mwangi

My Heroes: Steve Biko and Malcolm X and the Great Africans of the 20th Century

Mwangi — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:34:57 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

I think in this, the 21st century, when we as black people can see so much negative within our community and find so much going wrong about us, we sometimes forget that the last century was almost entirely defined by our great forefathers. If you look through lists of the greatest people of the last century, there are almost always great black people such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Frantz Fanon, Patrice Lumumba, Tom Mboya, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King and Malcolm X.

Whereas my admiration is equally divided amongst so many of the great black people of the last 20th century, very few people have captivated my heart in the manner that Steve Biko and Malcolm X had. This is because:

1) Their Sincere Love for their Race: When I first encountered the works of these great men, it was when I was going through a stage of being really ashamed of my race. When I read Biko and his ideas of the Black Consciousness Movement, I almost cried in jubilation, ” I matter! I am special! This being black thing makes me special!” My exposure to Biko’s work is at most very superficial but all I really needed was quotes such as the one below to become a major fan:

“Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression – the blackness of their skin – and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.”

“So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.”

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Malcolm X was an entirely different case. In terms of Malcolm I was first exposed to his speeches (such as the Field Negroe/House Negroe speech) and by the time I watched the biopic Make it Plain, I had no doubt in my mind that though I may not have agreed with a lot of his ideas when he was in the Nation of Islam, deep in the core of his heart, he cared and existed to improve the lives of black people worldwide. That is why when he visited Africa in the middle of the century, he was given the name “Omowale”, meaning “the son returns home” in the Yoruba language.

2) They Made Us Take Responsibility: Biko and Malcolm didn’t just want to make us feel special and leave us feeling good, they wanted us to take responsibility for our psychology, our education, our communities and our lives. That’s why Malcolm spoke about the African Americans separating from the rest of American society so that they could take absolute responsibility for how their communities were run.

Biko was also committed to freeing South Africa from the shackles of Apartheid, so much so that he was not only placed under house arrest but died at the hands of Apartheid’s barbaric foot soldiers.

3) They Were Men of Substance: These men always carried themselves with dignity and respect and were men who you would never be ashamed to tell your kids to look up to. With all due respect to Dr. King, he strayed from home quite a few times, and it amazes me that Malcolm, with his criminal background,never did the same. Educated, intelligent, classy brothers who had compassion in their heart and carried themselves with courage and conviction. Yup!

4) They Had COURAGE: I intend to write about this in future. In my opinion, Africa does not lack intellect or skill or even resources. One of the main thing that Africa lacks in my humble opinion is commitment and courage. Malcolm and Steve managed to effect major change over their societies at a time when freedom for black people was a myth told to children. They were both assassinated. But this wasn’t before the death threats and attempts on their lives while living in a society where police brutality was a way of life. I love the fact that courage such as theirs, especially in a day like today when we are much more free and doing much less with it, will forever remain in the history books to remind us that some people did it much tougher than we will ever have to.

5) They Recorded their Ideas: If the great African thinkers of the 20th century never recorded their ideas we would never have had exposure to Black consciousness movement or Afrocentric thinking or Pan-African ideas or dives into the intellects of Garvey, Frantz Fannon, Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere. Can you imagine how much hopeless life would be for a lot of Africans if this were so.

6) They Worked Together Across National Boundaries: A Pan-African state seemed like a very probable idea in the middle of the century. This is because the Bikos, the Malcolms, the Dr. Kings, the Nkrumah’s and the Nyerere’s had all recognized our shared struggle as people of colour worldwide and agreed that it only made sense for us to come up with a solution together. Though I don’t think the possibility of a Pan-African state or Pan-African identity is dead, these guys looked like they were about to make it happen.

7) They Gave Me Hope: Ultimately these guys gave a very lost teen some hope and helped restore some of the dignity that he had lost. They also excited me because through them I got the idea ingrained deeper into my head that one man’s actions can actually make a difference.

Please check out some of the work by some of these seminal thinkers and have that fire lit under your butt so you can go out there and make this world magnificent.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi X

PS: I would love to know people’s thoughts on this email I received regarding Biofuels and food security. So leave a comment or get in touch with me and let me know your thoughts.

My Hero: Eric Wainaina

Mwangi — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:36:59 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

For some biographical information on Eric Wainaina please check out Eric Wainaina’s Wikipedia page or check out his biography on his site (which is pretty much a carbon copy of the Wikipedia biography). Eric also has his own page on the Berklee University website (where you can hear one of his SUBLIME tracks ‘Ukweli’-which means truth)

**All images taken from Eric Wainaina’s official website**

Whereas until recently I always thought that I had no living African males who I considered heroes or role models, I recently realized just how much I admire Eric Wainaina. Here is why:

1) He marches to the beat of his own drum: Look around at majority of the people you hear on the radio and they are carbon copies of each other. As soon as a hot artist comes out, the record company, in what I think is an act of pure genius, goes to the assembly line to create a second, third, fourth, fifth, fixth etc etc version of that artist. Not Eric!

Eric’s been in the music industry for a long time (10+ years) and even with the explosion of African music he continues to make the same Africa-grow-and-realize-your-potential music with the same focus on creating an ‘African’ sounding sound and constantly expanding his musical horizons within the continent. I don’t think we should expect Eric to come out with a collabo with Young Grillz entitled ‘Get My Money Biatch!”

2) He is an artist: Any man who can sing in Luo, Kikuyu (‘Ritwa Riaku’ which is below), Somali and Kiswahili (check out ‘Twende Twende’ below ) while collaborating with Indians and Zimbabweans (check out ‘Twende Twende’ below ) on one album deserves our respect. You can tell that he is a student, a lover and a pure expression of music and musicality. If his second album, Twende Twende was that artistically diverse, so much more so than his-still-bloody-phenomenal-album-’Sawa Sawa‘, what can we expect from his third studio album I wonder. I am also excited to see what he will come up with because:

3) He Keeps Learning: Please correct me if I’m wrong but the last I heard, Eric had a Bachelor and a Masters in music. First of all going back to the point of marching to his own drum, how many Africans do you know who have the courage to do that. I certainly don’t: I dropped out of film school. I can’t wait to see what his constant exploration of the world of music will make him produce when his next album drops.

4) He Speaks Truth, Even to Power: Whether he is reminding us of the corruption of an African country in a song like Nchi ya Kitu Kidogo (not the direct translation but basically its a reference to a nation of bribes) or telling us just how silly and unfair this world is in Dunia ina Mambo, Eric has no problem making you take a hard look at yourself and the world around you. As artists should do……

5) He Speaks Common Sense: I won’t even expand on this too greatly. Tell me that the verse below isn’t something that makes a helluva lot of sense.

The Devil asked St. Peter

Ni kulala mnalala au vipi (hallo hallo)

Are you guys asleep or what?

Mnaruhusu viongozi wa nchi tajiri

You allow wealthy nations

Kumiliki nchi masikini

To control poor nations

Kwa mfano wananchi wa nchi zilizokuwa chini ya ukoloni

For example, the citizens of former colonies

Waliporwa mali zao au siyo (au siyo)

Weren’t they robbed

Basi mbona waliyonyanyaswa wasipande ndege

Then why can’t those were oppressed jump on a plane

Na kwenda ng’ambo ili kurudisha…haki zao

Go abroad and claim what’s rightfully theirs

6) He Has Many Tricks Up His Sleeve: He has written songs for the UN. He has written songs for marathons. He has performed at award shows and Big Brother. My personal favorite: He was the man behind the music of the wow-that-was-good-I-am-so-glad-I-visited-home-that-year play Lwanda. To anyone who is behind that play, release it on DVD, I as sure as hell will buy.

7) He Creates Music: You can tell that he takes the time to choose the instrument, write the lyrics and blend them all into a complete whole. When I listen to his music and music by cats like Phil Collins, I imagine them sitting in the studio at odd hours of the night, mixing and matching and blending instruments until they vibrate and sync together at the just the perfect frequency with the perfect pitch.

Hope you enjoyed my rantings and ravings on an absolutely phenomenal artist. Got something to say, leave a comment or contact me.

Be ‘Sawa Sawa’ and strive to make others lives ‘Sawa Sawa’,

Mwangi

My Hero: Kirk Franklin

Mwangi — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:44:22 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa