WordPower 2008 was Europe's biggest Black Book Exhibition held at the Emirates Stadium.

We are happy to announce that WordPower is back at a brand new London venue. So its not just an event in the London borough of Hackney anymore. As usual there will be speakers, writers and publishers from here and the U.S. WordPower has grown bigger to encompass London and the wider black diaspora.
Early Bookings qualify for a 20% discount.

Nelson Mandela 92nd Birthday

Today Nelson Mandela celebrates his 92nd birthday!

He reminded the world what self belief, pride, dignity and humanity on the righteous path can achieve.

While he spent 27 years in prison at this time we should also remember activists like Steve Biko, Patrice

Lamumba and many other heroes who were tortured and brutally  murdered on this path.

Daniel Obachike - July 2010

1. Select package. 2. Pay. 3. Download & fill in form on the left.

LARGE SHOWCASE SPACE
Suitable for big boutique displays £250
(20% OFF if booking online)

LONG TABLE

Suitable for books, dvds and crafts: £125
(20% OFF if booking online)

MEDIUM TABLE
Suitable for literature, crafts, small sole traders: £60
(£10 OFF if booked online)

For further details or assistance call 0207 254 9632

The Dugdale Centre is in the centre of Enfield Town with excellent transport links and conveniently located parking areas just 15 minutes from Seven Sisters station.

By Train:
Trains from Liverpool St Station stop at Seven Sisters, White Hart Lane, Bruce Grove, Edmonton Green, Enfield Town Station. Trains from Moorgate and Finsbury Park stop at Enfield Chase Station.

By Bus:
A range of buses stop at Enfield Town including: 121, 191, 231, 307, 313, 329, 377, W8, W9.

By Road:
There are a series of main roads accessing Enfield Town including A105 (London Road, Silver Street) and A110 (Windmill Hill, Church Street, Southbury Road).

Parking:
There is a range of pay & display parking areas in the vicinity of Dugdale Centre. The nearest parking areas are Palace Gardens Car Park – Sydney Road (530 spaces) and Genotin Road Car Park.

Flora Nwapa is known as the mother of African women's literature, forerunner to all the African women writers we know today, most recently Ngozie Chidimma Adichie credits her in Half A Yellow Sun

Born in Eastern Nigeria she is best known for recreating life and traditions from an African womans viewpoint and was the first African women writer to be published in the English language after sending the manuscript she wrote in 1962 to a former colleague Chinua Achebe in Lagos who recommended it to International publisher Heinemans for publication.

"When I write about women in Nigeria and Africa, I try to paint a positive picture because there are many women who are very, very positive in their thinking, very, very independent and very, very industrious." - Flora Nwapa

Her debut novel Efuru (1966) was based on an old folktale about a woman chosen by gods where Nwapa challenged the traditional portrayal of women. The story was set in a rural community where the heroine is a strong and beautiful woman who loses her child and has two unhappy marriages, but struggles against all obstacles to become a successful businesswoman after seeking out the lake goddess Uhamiri, who gives her worshippers wealth and beauty but few children.

As a business woman, she also encouraged with her own example to break the traditional female roles of wife/mother and strived for equality in society. Besides writing she established her own publishing company Tana Press, the very first publishing house owned by an *African woman in Africa (*non Arab). Between 1979 and 1981 she produced eight volumes of adult fiction and set up another company specialising in children's fiction.

Flora Nwapa died on October 16, 1993 in Enugu, Nigeria. She left a husband and three children. At the time of her death she had completed a manuscript of THE LAKE GODDESS, her final novel. It focused on the lake goddess Mammy Water, the mythical inspirer of Nwapa's fiction that legends tells has her adobe on the bottom of the lake, near the author's birthplace.

Of those at her funeral, one paid her tribute in the following words:

"Flora is gone and we all have to say adieu. But she left behind an indelible mark. No one will ever write about Nigerian literature in English without mentioning her. She will always be the departure point for female writing in Africa. And African publishing will forever owe her a debt. But above all, her contribution to the development of women in Nigeria, nay in Africa, and throughout the world is what she will be best remembered for." - Ken Saro-Wiwa

Article by Professor M Umeh

By Nathaniel U Agbuhowe

In his revolutionary new book, Wake Up Africa! Nathaniel U. Agbahowe comes forth with an appeal to the continental African, the African of the diaspora and the entire black race of the world.

“If we are to advance and survive as a people, we must seek to understand the meaning of life and how to survive on this planet called earth,” Agbahowe writes. “If we fail to do so, we must have missed the high calling of man. Our ancestors missed the mark. Should this generation do the same, we shall not only be leading future generations into darker alleyways, but also ensuring the extinction of the black race. At a time such as this when technology is in the panacea, we can no longer afford to sit on the fence.”

Particularly, Wake Up Africa! examines the many causes responsible for Africa’s current problems. Agbahowe points to a flawed mindset as being particularly to blame: “Africa has come to embrace a mindset culminating in the familiar blame-game scenario. Until we change this detrimental mindset of blame-game and dependency on others for our needs, there is no future for the African.”

Blunt and starkly honest, Wake Up Africa! provides a much-needed wake-up call to readers to end the inertia and indifference towards Africa and its people. Agbahowe’s call to action is stirring, his research is thorough and his message is clear: present and future generations must rebuild and strengthen this resilient continent and its people. “I believe that now is the time for the African in Diaspora to return to his or her vandalised and looted ancestral home and rebuild. Leaving it any longer can only lead to further slide of the continent into deeper obscurity,” Agbahowe writes.


For an interview request, please contact:
Nathaniel .U. Agbahowe
e-mail: okemena1@tiscali.co.uk

Pan Afrikan Society Community ForumPresents the 2010 annual theme and series of workshops

Afrikan Freedom means Defeating Neo-colonialism:Nkrumah @ 100 Pre-Marcus Garvey Day Workshops6.30pm Arrival 7pm Start - Youths are especially welcome - All free of charge Applying the ideas of Marcus Garvey DateSessionPresenter (Facilitator)

Friday2/7/10The story of Tookey Williams – an Afrikan judicially murdered by the US state Michael(Sista C)

Friday9/7/10Experiences of a young Diasporan Garveyite in AzaniaRyan Williams(Cecil)

Friday16/7/10The role of Religion in Afrikan people’s liberation: A Christian perspectiveRev. Hewie(Andrew)

Friday23/7/10-Developments in the case death row hero – Mumia Abu JamalTongogara(Jackie)

Friday30/7/10-Settler Colonialism in and after the cold warCecil Gutzmore(Claudia)

Friday6/8/10-Pan-Afrikan Women’s Day: The role of Women in the Grenadian RevolutionJacqui Mc Kenzie(Elam)

Friday13/8/10-The Life and Times of Marcus GarveyCecil Gutzmore(Andrew)

Friday20/8/10-Families speak out: Afrikan Deaths in Police CustodyUFFC(Minkah)

Friday27/8/10-4th Annual Commemoration of the Haitian Revolution Bois Cayman ceremonyCecil Gutzmore(Lorna)

Venue for Workshops:Starlight Music Academy, 44-46 Offley Road, The Oval, London SW9 0LSNearest Tube: Oval (Northern Line); Buses: 3, 36, 59, 133, 155, 159, 185, 333, 436

Kwanzaa planning meetings – Same venue alternate Mondays @ 6.30pmFor more information:

Ring 07940 005 907; email – Panascf@yahoo.co.uk; Website – www.pascf.org.uk

When we were oppressed under slavery and colonialism our ancestors knew it; they knew that they had to remove these oppressive systems in order to be free.  It is a massive contradiction that despite the fact that we are actually living in the neo-colonial phase of history, most of us do not know what it is.  The problem this poses is that if we do not know it, we cannot understand it; if we cannot understand it, we cannot consciously do anything to challenge it; if we cannot do anything to challenge it, we cannot get rid of it; if we cannot get rid of it, we will remain stuck in it; if we remain stuck in neo-colonialism, Afrika cannot be liberated and we will not be a free and self determining people.  The critical task before us therefore, is to raise our collective level of consciousness of the nature of neo-colonialism and how to defeat it in Afrikan communities everywhere.

Obama Music - The American Authors new book.

Centerprise Presents:

Join Bonnie and hear her views on issues on both sides of the Atlantic.
A British resident and Chicago native Bonnie has recently been the focus of much attention on topics as diverse as the rise of the British National Party and leader of the free world President Barack H. Obama.

Bonnie launches her latest book Obama Music with a book signing, talk and dinner.

Download full event details here: Greer_Dec05

Spaces are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

Queen Afua 4 day intensive training course in London 2010

All the way from the U.S.A, Queen Afua is an internationally renowned herbalist, holistic health specialist, and dedicated healer of women's bodies and souls, who practices from a uniquely Afrocentric spiritual perspective. Through her work as a certified colon therapist, polarity practitioner, Hatha Yoga and Ari Ankh Ka Instructor, lay midwife and fasting specialist, she has guided thousands of women and men, coast to coast, in the art and science of Natural Living for over 37 years.

Her bestsellers, Heal Thyself for Health and Longevity, Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing The Feminine Body, Mind and Spirit, have forever changed the way Africans practice holistic health and in her latest book, The City Of Wellness, she answers the primal scream from the heart and soul of the African community worldwide, recognizing and addressing the connection between malnutrition-obesity-illness led her to create a new “greenprint” for regaining our lost physical, psychological, and spiritual health.

For more information call: 0207 254 9632

Download pdf copy here