Henriette Diabaté

Henriette Diabaté (born March 13, 1935) is an Ivorian politician and writer. A member of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), Diabaté was Minister of Culture from 1990 to 1993 and again in 2000; later, she was Minister of Justice from 2003 to 2005. She has been the Secretary-General of the RDR since 1999.

Diabaté was born in Bingerville. She was a professor of history from 1965 to 1995 and was a founding member of the RDR. source.

R.I.P Ivan van Sertima

Ivan van Sertima (26 January 1935 - 25 May 2009 ) was a Guyanese-British historian, linguist and anthropologist at Rutgers University in the United States. He is noted for his Afrocentric theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas.

Early life and education

Van Sertima was born in Kitty Village, Guyana, on 26 January 1935, when it was still a British colony. He has remained a British citizen. Van Sertima's father Frank Obermuller was a trade union leader. Van Sertima completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry.

He went to London in 1959 for university. In addition to producing an array of creative writing, Van Sertima completed undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 1969, where he graduated with honors. During his studies he became fluent in Swahili and Hungarian languages.

He worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Swahili legal terms.

In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey for graduate work.

Career
Van Sertima began his more than 30-year teaching career at Rutgers as an instructor in 1972. In 1977 he completed his master's degree. He is Associate Professor of African Studies in the Department of Africana Studies. As editor of the Journal of African Civilization and author of numerous books, he has addressed topics in literature, linguistics, anthropology and history. Van Sertima has written a number of books in which he argues that the Ancient Egyptians were black.

His 1976 book They Came Before Columbus was a bestseller and achieved widespread fame for his claims of prehistoric African influences in Central and South America. It did not receive much professional attention when published, and has been criticized by academic specialists.
Van Sertima also treated the topic of African scientific contributions in his essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999. This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance.

His article is titled The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview. In it he presents early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He notes that such higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them very vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers.

On July 7, 1987 Van Sertima appeared before a United States Congressional committee to challenge giving credit for the discovery of America to Christopher Columbus. source

Nicaraguan women hit back at domestic abuse

Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar reports from Nicaragua, where one in three women are thought to have been victims of domestic abuse. source

Trent University Offers Free Tuition for Students

Trent University has announced an exciting new incentive program, offering free tuition for
first-year students with an entering average of 90% or higher, to recruit the best and brightest
young students.

Eligible students will receive a $5,000 scholarship, equivalent to the cost of tuition, if they
accept their offer of admission to Trent for the fall.

"Given the economic challenges facing Canadian families, we feel that this will be a good
incentive to assist top high school scholars pay for their costs of the education,” said
Christopher Michael, Trent University registrar and director of Institutional Research.

To qualify, students must be either a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, who is
attending a post-secondary institution for the first time, directly from a Canadian high school,
and entering with an average of 90% and above for the 2009-10 academic year. Students
must also be registering at Trent with a full course load of at least five credits.

The scholarship is renewable. If students maintain an average of at least 80% in five full
credits, or equivalent, each year they are at Trent, they could be eligible to receive up to
$14,000 in scholarships over four years.

For more information, including a chart of available scholarships, please visit Trent’s Free
Tuition website at www.trentu.ca/freetuition/ or contact the Financial Aid Office at Trent by email at financialaid@trentu.ca or by phone at 705-748-1524.

Christopher Michael, University Registrar and Director of Institutional Research

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Taysha Valez Self Made Billionaire

Picture source:theybf.com

Taysha Valez is the C.E.O of H.Couture Beauty LLC and the nonprofit H.Couture Beauty Water Inc. (a.k.a. Beauty Water ORG). Taysha became a self made millionaire through her investments in real estate and diamond reselling while she was in college. She is the author of Young Black Millionairess : How to Start a Million Dollar Business: Volume 1/2: Get to the Point Edition. Click here to purchase.

Check out her website Socialite Collection and Co here.

Look of The Day

Kerry Washington working it again at Cannes in France.

Obama nominates Sotomayor to Supreme Court

President Obama on Tuesday nominated federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Hispanic and third female U.S. Supreme Court justice if confirmed.

Obama announced the nomination Tuesday morning in the East Room of the White House.
"Thank you, Mr. President, for the most humbling honor of my life," Sotomayor said.
"My heart is bursting with gratitude," she said. She gave special recognition to her mother, who was sitting in the audience.

"I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences," Sotomayor said.

Obama called Sotomayor "an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice."
She "has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breath of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice," he added. Continue reading here

Aissa Maiga French Actress

Nationality: French
Date of birth: 25/05/1975
Gender: Female

Biography: Actress Aissa Maïga was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1975, Malian father and mother sénégalaise. Her parents left Africa to settle in France when she was only 4 years.source

"Venus Williams" book by Koto Bolofo

Born in South Africa, Koto Bolofo was raised in Great Britain after his family was forced to flee as political refugees. Koto’s father, a history teacher, was found to have writings by Karl Marx among his teaching materials and was exiled for his supposed “communist practices”. After nearly 25 years away son and father returned to South Africa, which Koto documented in his short film The Land is White, The Seed is Black.source

Dance Africa

"Now in its 32nd year, DanceAfrica, guided by the inspired, creative vision of Artistic Director Chuck Davis, unites dance companies from across the nation to shake the Opera House stage. This year Washington DC-based percussion orchestra Farafina Kan—the "sound of Africa"—shares the history and spirit of West African music; New York group SeeWe African Dance Company uses African rhythms and instruments to enlighten audiences; Brooklyn-based Evidence, A Dance Company fuses traditional African dance with contemporary movements and spoken word"Continue reading here

Chanel Iman Covers Harpers Bazaar, Dubai

Look of The Day

Kerry Washington attends the premiere of "Visage", during 62nd Cannes Film Festival.

picture source:corbis

Happy Independence Day Eritrea

Eritrea Independence

She's Got Game, Susan Rice in Vogue

" It is a cold, rainy night in mid-April, and hundreds of people have packed a ballroom at the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel in New York to meet the new United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice. "continue reading full interview here.

Susan Elizabeth Rice (born on November 17, 1964) is an American foreign policy advisor and United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Rice served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Bill Clinton's second term. Rice is the United States' third woman ambassador to the UN. Jeane Kirkpatrick and Madeleine Albright were first and second. She is also the first African-American woman to hold the position and the third African-American person to do so (after Andrew Young and Donald McHenry). continue reading here.

Ron Eglash: African Fractals in Buildings and Braids

Ron Eglash is an ethno-mathematician: he studies the way math and cultures intersect. He has shown that many aspects of African design -- in architecture, art, even hair braiding -- are based on perfect fractal patterns.

When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganized and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn't even discovered yet. -- Ron Eglash, Mathematician

Check out his book African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design

Klum crowns Sara 'Germany's Next Topmodel'

Sara, a 19-year-old whose parents come from Ethiopia, became the fourth winner of Heidi Klum’s show "Germany’s Next Topmodel". source

Jourdan Dunn, Summer Nights for British Vogue

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Ursula Burns , Xerox CEO

Ursula M. Burns (New York, New York, September 20, 1958 - ) currently serves as president of Xerox Corporation, named to the position in March 2007. She previously served as president of the company's Business Group Operations and as a corporate senior vice president. On 21 May 2009, it was announced she will succeed Anne M. Mulcahy as CEO starting 1 July.

Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern. She subsequently held several positions in engineering, including product development and planning. In June 1991 she became the executive assistant to Paul A. Allaire, then Xerox chairman and chief executive officer.

From 1992 through 2000, Burns led several business teams, including the office color and fax business, office network copying business and the departmental business unit. In May 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, and most recently, president of the Document Systems and Solutions Group.

Usrula married her husband Lloyd Bean in October 1988. Since then she has been successfully juggling raising a family of 2 kids, Malcolm (born 1989) and Melissa (born 1992), and being an influential businesswoman. She enjoys reading, staying in shape, and spending time in big cities like Manhattan, London, and Paris. She also enjoys spending her down time with her family. She resides in Rochester, New York, New York City, and Bermuda. source.

Michelle Obama Covers Time Magazine

Michelle Obama. Portrait for Time magazine.

Read full interview here

Día de la Afrocolombianidad

The Afro-Colombian Day is commemorated since 2001, date which was established through Law 725, in memory of the 150 years of the abolition of slavery in Colombia, consecrated on May 21, 1851. source

Jourdan Dunn for Vogue Russia

by Jason Kibbler
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Kimberly Jade Norwood

picture source

Professor of Law and Professor of African & African American Studies.

After graduation from law school Professor Norwood was a judicial clerk for the Honorable Clifford Scott Green in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Thereafter Professor Norwood joined the St. Louis law firm of Bryan, Cave, McPheeters, & McRoberts where she practiced law in the litigation department.

Her recent articles include "Adult Complicity in the Dis-Education of the Black Male High School Athlete and Societal Failures to Remedy His Plight,” 34 (1) ThurMar L.Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2008-2009), "Blackthink's™ "Acting White" Stigma in Education & How It Fosters Academic Paralysis in Black Youth," 50(3) How L.J. 711(2006-2007), [view article], "The Virulence of Blackthink™ and How Its Threat of Ostracism Shackles Those Deemed Not Black Enough," 93 Kentucky Law Journal 144 (2005) [view article]. source

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Look of The Day

Michelle at the American Ballet Opening Night Spring Gala

Michelle at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Metropolitan Museum of Art American Wing.

Charles Bolden to be next chief of NASA

Charles Frank "Charlie" Bolden, Jr., (born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general and a former NASA astronaut. A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy (USNA), he became a Marine Aviator and test pilot. After his service with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, he became Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA. Bolden is the virtual host of the Shuttle Launch Experience attraction at Kennedy Space Center. In early January 2009, speculation arose that Barack Obama may name Bolden as NASA Administrator to replace Michael D. Griffin. MSNBC has reported that Bolden will be named the NASA Administrator on May 18, 2009.

Continue reading/source

Mrs.Obama Commencement Speech at U of C

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, PC (born 13 March 1954) is a British Labour Party politician and life peer, formerly serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first black woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. She left the cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. She was then nominated to become the European Union special representative to the African Union by Gordon Brown. However after an independent selection process, Belgian diplomat Koen Vervaeke was chosen to represent the EU in Addis Ababa.

Amos was born in Guyana, and attended Bexley Technical High School for Girls, Townley Road, Bexleyheath, where she was the first black deputy Head Girl. She then studied at the University of Warwick, the University of Birmingham and the University of East Anglia, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. She was also awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Warwick in 2000 and the University of Leicester in 2006. continue reading /source

Diane Julie Abbott

Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953 in Paddington, London, England) is a British Labour Party Member of Parliament, representing the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency. She was the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons when she was elected in the 1987 General Election. She remained the only black woman MP for ten years until she was joined in the Commons by Oona King in 1997. She has always been considered to the left of New Labour and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group. In 2008, she was named one of the ten most powerful black women in Britain.

Abbott was born to Jamaican immigrants, her father a welder and her mother a nurse. She went to Harrow County Grammar School for Girls and then to Newnham College, Cambridge where she read history. After university she became a fast-tracked civil servant (1976 to 1978), and then a 'Race Relations Officer' at the National Council for Civil Liberties from 1978 to 1980. Amongst her colleagues at NCCL were Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt and Paul Boateng, all later becoming Labour Cabinet Ministers. continue reading /source

Arlenis Sosa for Allure Magazine

Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier

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