Unsung heroes of the Caribbean who fought for Britain against Hitler

Roy Greenslade (The Guardian) writes about the unsung heroes of the Caribbean who fought for Britain against Hitler. These veterans will be highlighted in a television program that marks the 70th anniversary of VE day: Fighting for king and empire: Britain’s Caribbean heroes. The film reveals how thousands of men and women from the Caribbean volunteered to join the fight against Hitler. “From meager savings they paid their own passage to risk their lives,” but their contribution to World War II has largely been forgotten. Broadcast as part of the BBC’s commemoration of VE day, the film is being screened by BBC4 at 9:00pm on Wednesday, May 13.

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The Top Five African Games

These days, “child’s play” seems to be about online gaming, from Playstations to Nintendos. But many might recall the days when children congregated outdoors, playing their favourite games in the street. They were free and required little or no equipment. Apart from being fun, they also helped build fundamental skills, from social interaction to physical hand-eye co-ordination and even basic maths and strategic thinking. Here’s our list of some of the most popular traditional African games played by children across the continent.

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Robert Smalls War Hero and Legislator (1839-1915)

Robert Smalls began life as a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina on 5 April 1839, born to Robert and Lydia Smalls. Lydia was a house servant for her master, plantation owner John K. McKee and, according to American Eras, "McKee was probably Smalls' father." McKee had brought Lydia, a slave born on the Ashdale Plantation, to his home on Prince Street in Beaufort to look after his five children.

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Black in Persian Gulf (Afro-Iraqis and Afro Iranians)

The Trans-Saharan trade, which flourished from the eighth century AD through the 1840s, brought African labor to the hazardous enterprises of pearl diving, date farming and the raw, brutal work of clearing Iraqi salt marshes. African boys were commonly castrated to serve as eunuch guards of royal harems. Unlike those who were enslaved in the West, however, blacks enslaved in the Arabic-speaking world also served as guards, sailors and high-ranking soldiers. In the 19th century, Basra was one of the most profitable slave ports in the region, commonly offering slave traders as much as 50% returns upon their "investments."

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Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas

Numerous evidence suggests that Muslims from Spain and West Africa arrived to the Americas at least five centuries before Columbus. It is recorded,for example, that in the mid-tenth century, during the rule of the Ummayyed Caliph Abdul-Rahman III (929-961 CE), Muslims of African origin sailed westward from the Spanish port of DELBA(Palos) into the "Ocean of darkness and fog". They returned after a long absence with much booty from a "strange and curious land". It is evident that people of Muslim origin are known to have accompanied Columbus and subsequent Spanish explorers to the New World.

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DEEP RACISM: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF HUMAN ZOOS

In the late 1800s to well into the 1900s, Europeans created “human zoos” in cities like Paris; Hamburg, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Barcelona, Spain; London; Milan; Warsaw, Poland; St Louis; and New York City. These were popular human exhibits where whites went to watch Black people who were on display. The Black people were usually forced to live behind gates and in cages similar to animals in a zoo today.

Some of the Black people were kidnapped and brought to be exhibited in the human zoos. Many of them died quickly, some within a year of their captivity. A large number of visitors attended these exhibitions in each city daily. For example, the Parisian World Fair featured a human zoo that exhibited Black people, and 34 million people were drawn to the exhibition in just six months.

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BHM: Bajan Stick licking

BAJAN STICK LICKIN’ is a stick fighting martial art that has its roots from Africa, where two participants used fire hardened wooden sticks, varying in length as weapons and carrying out fighting techniques.

This art most likely came to Barbados during the 16th century, when the Europeans brought slaves to the Americas i.e. The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
- See more at: http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/63977/bhm-bajan-stick-licking#sthash.lMRLpIF9.dpuf

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