2
January 5, 1995 AUGUSTA FOCUS
Chicago hosts Ghanaian dignitary
M Nation of Islam
receives and thanks
First Lady of Ghana
for successful
African convention
by J. Hunter
Special to Augusta Focus
Chicago, IL
Mrs. Khadijah Farrakhan, wife
of Nation of Islam leader Minis
ter Louis Farrakhan, hosted a
reception for the First Lady of
Ghana, Mrs. Nana Rawlings. The
purpose of the reception was to
welcome Mrs. Rawlings and
thank the people of Ghana for
hosting the Nation of Islam (NOI)
at their first Saviour’s Day Con
vention held on the African Con
tinent.
While in Chicago, Mayor Rich
ard Daley received Mrs.
Rawlings at city hall and pre
sented her with a key to the City.
This was Mrs. Rawlings’ first visit
to America, where she met com
munity leaders in cities around
the country. She invited and en
couraged African-American
trade delegates to visit Ghana to
explore investment possibilities.
An estimated audience of 10
million watched NOI leader Min
ister Louis Farrakhan deliver his
address, aired live on Ghanaian
TV and via satellite to 23 U.S.
cities, Canada and the Carib
bean.
This Convention in Africa sig
naled the fulfillment of the NOI
founder, the Hon. Elijah
King Center dispute sparks
accusations of profiteering
From page one
“So we're going to fight for that.”
King’s widow, Coretta Scott
King, has been a zealous guard
ianofher husband’s history, charg
ing fees to those who publish his
speeches and unsuccessfully su
ing Boston University a few years
ago over the ownership of per
sonal papers King gave to the
school in 1964.
She has accused the federal gov
ernment of trying to usurp the
family’s role in preserving her
husband’s work.
But that position has isolated
thefamilyin a city where the King
name adorns streets, buildings
and schools, and where the his
toric Auburn Avenue district
where he lived and planned some
of the great events of the civil
rights movement is the top tourist
attraction.
Residents of the neighborhood,
where the park service presence
is credited for some redevelop
ment, have for the most part sided
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Khadijah Farrakhan (L), and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley
present Nana Rawlings, First Lady of Ghana (R) with key to city.
Muhammad, who wanted to
build a bridge between Africa
and Africans in the Diaspora.
To an estimated 40,000 at
Accra’s (Ghana) Independence
Square, Farrakhan said, “Africa
has the potential to be a great
super power in the 21st century
... but we have to envision it.”
Farrakhansaid that visions have
tobe “shed” and Africans have to
take on a “new idea that will
bring us a new vision, then we
will ultimately evolve into
Ghana’s former president,
Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of a
United States of Africa.”
The convention included work
shops on topics like Economic
Development, The Business Con
nection, Toward Understanding
Africans in the Diaspora, The
Changing Role of the African
Women, and Health Issues Fac
against the Kings.
Even Joseph L. Roberts Jr., the
current pastor at Ebenezer Bap
tist Church, where King preached,
has accused the family of being
“dictatorial” and motivated too
much by profit.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, a
civil rights leader and King aide
in the 19605, said it has been ex
tremely painful to find himself at
odds with Mrs. King. He has set a
Jan. 21 meeting to bring the two
sides together. But he was the
chief congressional backer of the
park service project and vows it
won't be derailed.
“The legacy of Dr. King belongs
not just to the King site or the
King family. Dr. King was a citi
zen of the world and we must not
forget that. His legacy should not
be bought and sold like a box of
soap,” Lewis said.
The family-run King Center has
had a history of managerial prob
lems, and has been often criti
cized for paying too little atten
tion to problems such as poverty,
World News
ing the Black World. Workshop
presenters included Tynetta
Muhammad, wife of Elijah
Muhammad; Kwame Toure
(Stokely Carmichael); syndicated
talk show host Bob Law; Tony
Annat Forson, of the Ghana
Broadcasting Corporation; Chief
Executive Officer of Third World
Press, Haki Madhubuti; Dr.
Na’im Akbar, executive director
of Mind Productions; and Dr.
David Dubois, son of W.E.B.
Dubois.
“The convention served a po
litical and cultural purpose in
the sensethat it demonstrated ...
the interactive possibilities for
Africans and African Americans,”
Dr. Akbar said. “Spiritually, it
demonstrated the realization of
a vision that was established a
long time ago in the works and
the efforts of the H.E.M.”
said King biographer David
Garrow. :
“It’s crucial for us to separate
the Kinglegacy from what Coretta
and the children have done and
are doing, which I think there’s
nothing else to call it other than
utterly self-destructive,” said
Garrow, whose 1986 book on King,
“Bearing the Cross,” won the
Pulitzer Prize.
“The whole thing is incredibly
sad, but not particularly surpris
ing,” said Garrow, a history pro
fessor at the College of William
and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
If few Atlanta residents or offi
cials are rising to defend the
family’s position now, the Kings
got empathy from some tourists
visiting the historic site as the
battle raged last week.
“I don’t consider it profiteering.
The man did something, and they
want to take advantage of it,” said
Charmaine Crabb ofg Columbus,
Ga. “That’s part of America. If the
King family can profit, let them do
it"
International representative
for the NOI, Akbar Muhammad,
who hosted the convention, said
that the people of Ghana were
“overwhelmed” by what they saw.
He described the Convention as
“historical.” He feels that the
events should be documented “for
our children and our children’s
children.” According to
Muhammad, some of the partici
pating scholars said that they
would capture the workshops and
publish some of the results.
During the Opening Session,
President Jerry Rawlings of
Ghana called the event “a pil
grimage for Africans in the
Diaspora,” and discussed how
whites have used religion to in
still European values. “If you
want to Christianize me go
ahead, but don’t Europeanize me,
don’t take away my identity,” he
said to a standing ovation from
an audience that included his
entire cabinet as conference del
egates.
Farrakhan left Africa pledg
ing to build a Mosque school and
officein Ghana’s Muslim district
of Nima, in Accra. The NOI has a
community of over 40 members
in Nima, which is outside of
Accra.
Minister Akbar Muhammad
will assist in organizing trade
and travel delegations to Ghana.
For additional information,
please write Minister Akbar
Muhammad at P.O. Box 01241,
Osu-Accra Ghana, West Africa
or in the United States at 8816
Manchester Rd. Suite #ll7 St.
L0ui5M0.63144(314)962-2117.
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In new South Africa, line blurs
between township and town
By Donna Bryson
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
The line between black township
and whitetown isblurring. There’s
a sleek mall in black Sowetoand a
funky African “shebeen” in one of
Johannesburg’s wealthy white
neighborhoods.
South Africa’s white areas are
dotted with elaborate, multistory
monuments to consumerism. But
shopping in townships often
meant dilapidated corner stores
or bleak strip centers. That is,
until Dobsonville Mall opened in
Soweto in September.
Dobsonville is bright, tiled and
full of cruising teens dressed to be
seen in the latest baggy shorts
and American-style baseball caps.
Upscaleboutiquesonce found only
in white areas, jewelry stores of
fering SSOO gold chains, and an
aerobics studio have moved in.
Corrie Baehae, window-shop
ping with her mother one morn
ing, said mall developers should
have realized long ago there was
money to be made in Soweto. The
black community southwest of
Johannesburg has shacks and
squatter camps, but it also has
mansions and even a BMW
dealership.
“We like nice things — it’s just
that we were denied them,” said
Baehae, a 23-year-old law stu
dent who has lived in Soweto all
her life.
In town, whites are getting a
taste of shebeens, the lively, unli
censed bars that had their heyday
in the 19505.
Modern shebeens in the town
ships are often little more than a
kitchen where beer and cigarettes
are sold. The Get Ahead Shebeen,
which opened in Johannesburg
last March, tries to recapture the
glamor of the days whenbigbands
and crooners kept people dancing
and shebeen queens kept their tin
cups full of homemade beer.
Get Ahead decorated its space in
a chic mall with pieces of corru
gated iron and a mural of a shack
settlement spread out under a sky
darkened by coal smoke.
Crowds at cases and restaurants
elsewhere inthe mall were almost
all white one recent evening, but
Get Ahead was packed with blacks
drawn from a growing black ur
ban and suburban population. A
few whites also took the floor,
while polo-shirted young white
men stood in a corner like wall
flowers at the prom.
J.P. Kalala, who is black, said he
frequents Get Ahead for the live
music, ranging from reggae bands
to the African Jazz Pioneers, who
offer bouncy, brass-driven nostal
gia.
Dolly Ngubane, the 64-year-old
hostess who brings Get Ahead a
touch of authenticity with her
memories of real shebeens, insists
it'’s more thanjust a place todance
— it’s a symbol of the new South
Africa.
“We are all together — black,
white, colored.” she said. “De
mocracy! Now everybody’s
happy.”
