Descendants of freed African slaves are fighting to save their traditional Gullah way of life and ancestral land in South Carolina.
Descendants of West African slaves in South Carolina are fighting to prevent their land from being confiscated and auctioned. Can they save a traditional way of life that has survived for the one and half centuries since emancipation?
The first Lillian Milton knew about it was when she arrived at the local council offices to settle her tax bill. She was told her home had been sold because she had not paid a $250 levy for a sewer service. She was shocked - at that point she had not even been connected to the sewer system.
“They had sold everything, the property, the house and all and when I offered to pay them with a cheque, they told me I couldn’t. I had to get cash money - 880 some dollars that I had to pay them to get my place back. It’s like they were saying if I didn’t get on the system I wouldn’t have no place to stay.”
Milton suspects the heart attack she suffered in January was brought on by the stress of trying to get her home back.In the end, she says, “my boss lady gave me the money,” and she was able to pay the court fees to redeem her property.
Many of her friends and neighbours in Jackson Village, one of three black communities in Plantersville, South Carolina, face losing their homes in a similar way if they don’t pay the tax for a sewer they say they didn’t want and don’t need.
Last week 20 homes were put up for auction.
Most residents are the direct descendants of West African slaves, who bought land on the former rice plantation, or were deeded it by the government, after emancipation in 1865. Property ownership had special meaning for these former slaves, known as Gullah Geechee, and the land has been proudly passed down through the generations, as a safe haven to raise families and farm.
But America’s seemingly insatiable appetite for coastal living and the money that can be made from buying up cheap former plantation land is a potential threat. The only people we see are the developers,“ says the Rev Ben Grate, gazing at the empty road that snakes through Jackson Village.
“We call them ‘strangers’ and we are afraid of them. Because they come to take your land. They are millionaires, in big cars, driving slow, staking out property, dreaming on what it would be like to have a motel on the river right here.”
With its neat brick-built bungalows, set back from the road in their own plots of land, and protected from the roar of Highway 701 by a dense forest, Jackson Village feels secure and cushioned against change.
But few residents here have deeds to their homes. The freed slaves who originally bought the land were mistrustful of the legal system, or excluded from it, and did not leave written wills.
The land is held in common. The families are entitled to live on it under “heir’s property rights” - but so are all of the descendants of the original owners. Ben Grate estimates that more than a million people, spread out across America, have a share of land in Plantersville, whether they know it or not.
If one of them decides to sell their share of their parents’ or grandparents’ home, a court can order the entire property to be sold at auction.
So although they are living on prime real estate, much sought after for holiday homes, golf courses or country clubs, they cannot simply sell up for a fat profit.
The residents can also have their home seized and sold off if they don’t pay their taxes.
Lillian Milton’s property, which was valued at $46,700 by the Georgetown county assessor, was sold at a delinquent tax sale to a real estate developer for $1,236, according to documents seen by the Georgetown Times. Residents who have their homes taken in this way have a year to redeem them, as Milton did.
Let me know if you guys would be interested, i would really love some responses and share this as much as you guys can if possible akhouti! ❤️
(Btw these shirts won’t be just for Morocco but for the whole of Maghreb United and nchallah we’ll have different shirts for different Maghrebi countries)
Today, July 9th, 2013, marks the second year of independence for Africa’s newest country, South Sudan. The Republic of South Sudan officially came into being on this day in 2011 after a referendum, determining whether or not the Southern region of Sudan should secede from the North, that passed with 98.83% of the vote, with President Salva Kirr Mayardit being elected as the country’s first president.
There are over 60 indigenous languages spoken in South Sudan, and the main ethnicities in the country are the Dinka, Nuer, Bari, Murle, and Zande peoples.
Four days ago on July 6th the island nation of Comoros, located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of east Africa, celebrated its independence from French colonial authority that was won on that day in 1975.
African and Austronesian settles who traveled to the island by boat are thought to have been the first human inhabitants of the island who are speculated to have arrived around the sixth century AD, the date of the earliest known archaeological site, found on Nzwani.
The Comoros islands have since been populated by a diverse array of settlers ranging from Arab and Swahili settlers, traders and human traffickers, to Malagasy slave raiders, and Portuguese, Dutch and French colonists.
French colonial rule was established on the islands beginning in 1841 with the signing of the Treaty of April 1841 between France and the Malagasy King of Mayotte Andrian Tsouli. The Treaty surrendered the Comoros island of Mayotte to France. By 1912, the islands of the Comoros were all under French colonial control.
In 1973 an agreement was reached between France and local Comorian authorities for the islands to become independent and self-governing. On 6 July 1975, the Comorian parliament passed a unilateral resolution declaring independence with Ahmed Abdalla as the country’s first president.
The former Portuguese colony consisting of islands that served as a base for European slave traders during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, because of its strategic location off the coast of West Africa, officially gained independence from Portugal and became a republic on July 5th, 1975.
Instrumental in the island nation’s fight for independence, Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean political leader and revolutionary Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was assassinated eight months before the country’s declaration of independence on 20 January 1973. Highly political since his days as a student in Lisbon, Cabral founded the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), PAIGC, and was one of the co-founders of the Movimento Popular Libertação de Angola (MPLA) - all three nations, Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau being Portuguese colonies in Africa.
From the founded of the PAIGC in 1963 until his death, Cabral led the party’s guerrilla movement against Portuguese forces, and was seen as one of the most successful independence wars in African history. With his education background as an agricultural engineer, Cultural led several innovative development initiatives that taught local crop growers better farming techniques, encouraged his soldiers to assist local farmers when not fighting, set up high standard travelling clinics with supplies sent from the USSR and Sweden, and established a trade-and-barter bazaar system that went around the country making staple goods available to rural communities at prices lower than that of colonial store owners.
“Educate ourselves; educate other people, the population in general, to fight fear and ignorance, to eliminate little by little the subjection to nature and natural forces which our economy has not yet mastered.”
- Amilcar Cabral
Aristides Maria Pereira, a leading member of the PAIGC, became the first president of Cape Verde serving from 1975 to 1991.
Happy Independence day to Somalia (East Africa/ Horn of Africa)
Celebrating 54 years of Independence (Union of the Trust Territory of Somalia (former Italian Somaliland) and State of Somaliland (former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Event annually commemorated on Independence Day.)
Happy Independence Day to everyone Democratic Republic of Congo!
After years of colonial rule by the Belgians, beginning with King Leopold II and his ruthless ambitions to secure colonial territory in Africa starting in the late 1870s, followed by the establishing of the Congo Free State from 1885-1908, which later became known as the Belgian Congo in the early 20th century, the area known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo officially became an independent nation on June 30th, 1960.
The fight for Congo’s independence was led primarily by the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba who would later be brutally assassinated after a Mobuto-led coup deposed him of his position after only three months in office. Lumumba’s assassination was carried out with involvement from British and Belgian governments, the United States (CIA), and local Congolese leaders who opposed Lumumba’s political developments.
The Republic of Djibouti is a successor of French Somaliland. It was later referred to as the French territory of the Afars and Issas. The country was created in 19th century after French became interested in the Horn of Africa as a reaction growing British interests in Egypt. The first elections were held in the region on 23rd November 1958.
French President Charles de Gaulle visited Djibouti in August 1966 – it was met with 2 days of public demonstrations by Somalis who demanded independence. Louis Saget was appointed governor general of the region on 21st September 1966. He announced that the French government had decided to stage a referendum to see if the local people still wanted to be a part of the French Republic.
In the referendum held in March 1967 60 percent of the people decided to remain with France. In July 1967, as per an order from France, the name of the region was changed to French Territory of Afars and Issas. The administrative structure of the territory was changed as well by the directive.
In 1975 French government started to face growing and persistent demands for independence from Djibouti. In June 1976 the citizenship law of the region was modified to reflect the importance of Issa Somali. In a referendum in May 1977 the electorate voted in favor of independence. The Republic of Djibouti became a reality on 27th June 1977.
Happy Independence Day to everyone from Madagascar!
The Republic of Madagascar was formed on June 26, 1960, after gaining independence from France. Madagascar was a colony of France from 1896 to 1960. On August 19, 1992, Madagascar’s constitution was adopted by a national vote.
With the Union Army closing in on the Confederate Capitol of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate government approves the enlistment of black troops in the army. A controversial measure, a few thousand black soldiers were recruited into segregated regiments. They were never given any promise of freedom for their service. Most never saw serious combat. Altogether black soldiers made up only .5% of the Confederate Army, not even close in balancing out the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for the Union.
A month later the Confederate government would collapse and Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. U.S. Grant.
Greyzone|The EP is Devenaire’s introduction to his sophomore album Greyzone|The Album. This is NOT the sound of the album, scheduled to release later 2015. Thank you to everyone who showed support to this Arkansas native indie artist. Follow him on his social media.
Instagram: iAm_Devenaire
Twitter: I_Am_Devenaire
Facebook.com/Devenaire
Stokely: A Life is one of the best books I’ve ever read and hands down the best book I’ve read this year. Anyone interested in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Pan-African movements, and of course, the life of Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture, should read this book by Peniel E. Joseph.
Stokely Carmichael was/is one of the most important African Americans, as well as Americans in general. He worked from the ground up transforming American society. He is definitely in the same class as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. It’s a shame that he is not remembered as the other two are. Joseph does a great job of showing Carmichael’s positives and negatives, as well as how his ideology evolved over time.
If you are interested in African American history, the Civil Rights era, or American history in general, this is a must read.
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