THE RASTAFARI COLLECTIVE--MARCH ARCHIVES
WOMEN'S MONTH
The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, March 3, 2002 to Saturday, March 9, 2002 Volume 2 No. 14 WEEKLY EDITION |
FREE THE WORLD!!!
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FORWARD BLACK WOMBMAN, FORWARD
In celebration of Women's month, InI do give thanks to the Mother of Creation for life, the Black Wombman. Many of our wombmen are not recognized or honored. Our wombmen are the strength of Our Black family and community, so let us honor and give praise to the Black wombmen of creation. To the Black wombmen, continue to be productive and fruitful in all aspects of life. Our works is to redeem Israel and bring it forward to its natural state.
Black Wombmen have carried us through slavery to the present time and will continue into the future. Wombmen such as, Queen Makeda, Empress Menen, Empress Zawditu, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Assata Shakur, Winnie Mandela, Betty Shabazz, Amy Jacques Garvey, Rep. Barbara Lee, Phyllis Wheatley, Marian Anderson, Ida B. Wells Barnett, and Queen Nzinga, just to name a few. Many of the mentioned names may be familiar to most, but one that may stand out is Queen Nzinga.
Queen Nzinga was the 1st born of King Kilunji who ruled Mutamba, Angola. Nzinga means beauty and courage and she is a warrior. From childhood, Nzinga was into hunting and she loved to write. She was always very cautious of the Portuguese settlers, some of who worked for her father. King Kilunji's 2nd child was a boy child, who was automatically heir to the throne. Nzinga proved to be worthy of her honor by going on missions to other villages and settling major disputes. Thus, being the warrior princess that she was, she conquered her brother and became Queen of Mutamba, Angola. The Portuguese were eager to dethrone Queen Nzinga, but she went on the battlefield with her troops and conquered the Portuguese invaders. She was truly loved by her community. So, we give thanks and honor to Queen Nzinga for her powerful works and pray that InI Black Wombmen look to our female ancestors for our strength and courage to conquer all.
This month, take time to acknowledge self and the Black Wombmen.
Give thanks for the Empress who bring herself to a right through Divine Power and Truth.
Blessed Be Mama Omega!!!
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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, March 10, 2002 to Saturday, March 16, 2002 Volume 2 No. 15 WEEKLY EDITION |
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ZENOBIA
BEAUTIFUL WARRIOR QUEEN OF THE EAST
(d. A.D. 272)
Next to Cleopatra, Zenobia was the most famous woman of antiquity. Her empire, Palmyra, stretched from the Euphrates almost to the Golden Horn and included Egypt and Syria.
Palmyra, according to tradition, was founded by Solomon, the Jewish ruler, and was one of the richest cities of the ancient world. It lay on the trade route between the East and the West. Caravans laden with silk, perfumes, gold, jewels, spices, and other products of China, India, Persia, and the East came there to meet the buyers from Greece, Rome, and the West. In wealth and culture it was not far behind Rome, abundant proof of which may be seen in the ruins of its broad streets, mighty arches and temples, extensive gardens, and many villas.
Zenobia took the throne on the death of her husband, Odenathus, who had been a vassal of Rome. One of Zenobia's first acts was to throw off this allegiance and rule in her own right. According to Trebellius Pollio, the Roman writer:
She lived with royal pomp after the Persian manner, received adulation like the kings of Persia, and banqueted like the Roman emperors.
She went in state to the assemblies of the people in a helmet with a purple band fringed with jewels. Her robe was clasped with a diamond buckle and she often wore her arm bare.
Her complexion was dusky, or dark brown [fusci coloris], her eyes black, and of uncommon fire. Her countenance was divinely expressive; her person graceful in form and her motion beyond imagination; her teeth were as white as pearls and her voice clear and strong. She displayed the severity of a tyrant when severity was called for, and the clemency of a good prince when justice required it.
She was generous with prudence but a husbandress of wealth more than is the custom with women. Sometimes she used a chariot but more frequently rode on horseback. She would march great distances on foot at the head of her infantry and would drink deeply with her officers, the Armenians, and the Persians, but with sobriety, using at her banquets golden goblets set with pearls such as Cleopatra was wont to use. In her service she employed eunuchs advanced in years and very few damsels.
She ordered her sons to be instructed in the Latin language as befitting the imperial purple in which she had arrayed them. She was herself acquainted with the Greek tongue and was not ignorant of Latin though from diffidence she spoke it seldom. She spoke Egyptian perfectly and was so versed in the history of Alexandria and the East that she made an abridgement of Oriental history.
Other Roman writers, such as Cornelius Capitolinus, have spoken in high praise of her beauty and of the darkness of her skin. Zenobia claimed descent from Cleopatra.
Invading Egypt, she conquered it and added it to her empire. This aroused the fears of Aurelian, Roman emperor, and he invaded Syria. Zenobia met him at Emesa with a powerful army composed of heavy cavalry, light infantry, and the famous Palmyrene archers, who had helped Rome in the conquest of Britain.
"Armed like Diana and beautiful as Venus," Zenobia rode at the head of her heavy cavalry in an onslaught against Aurelian. She swept all before her. But Aurelian skillfully kept his infantry and light cavalry out of the reach of her armored cavalry until the latter was exhausted, and then he attacked her in full force.
Forced to retreat, Zenobia made another stand. When she was beaten again, she fled on a swift camel to seek the aid of the King of Persia, but the Romans, overtaking her, captured her while she was crossing the Euphrates and took her prisoner to Rome. Here, in fetters of gold, she was forced to walk behind the chariot of Aurelian in one of the most magnificent triumphal processions ever held there.
Some historians say that she was later well treated by Aurelian, who gave her a splendid villa in Rome, and that she spent her last days quietly in a certain degree of contentment. But one historian, Zosimus, says that she mourned the destruction of her empire, and refusing all food, languished and died about 272 A.D.
Zenobia's tutor and counsellor was Longinus, author of the immortal Treatise on the Sublime. Zenobia, even more than Cleopatra, has been a source of feminine inspiration. Catherine the Great admired her so much that she called her own capital "The Palmyra of the North."
World's Great Men of Color, Volume 1, J.A. Rogers. pages 135-137
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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, March 17, 2002 to Saturday, March 23, 2002 Volume 2 No. 16 WEEKLY EDITION |
FREE THE WORLD!!!
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Equality between male AND female is the cornerstone to the equalization of all of humanity.
The role of women in the fight for freedom is a story that needs to be visited. All of humanity must remember and hold to their hearts that peace must be sought before war. Women have used various methods to invoke their will to bring about peace or victory. The Ibo women of East Africa fought off the colonial masters who wanted to place taxes upon their people. The Black Cross Nurses of the UNIA, who in their white uniforms, prepared themselves to assist their comrades in war and in peace. The women of Chiapa farmed and cared their children in the day while preparing to fight as Zapatistas.
There have been women who have made significant impacts with their statesmanship as well as planning skills to make various outcomes. Great women as Winnie Mandela, Empress Taytu, Empress Menen, Harriet Tubman, and Amy Jacques Garvey manifested actions that until this day have yet to be replicated. The women's perspective in humanity is literally the other half. Without it, the great victories claimed by nations and by man becomes a half-truth.
We find today that in the struggles in the Middle East, there are now women suicide bombers. The world is a tragic place when women who are a nurturing force find themselves in such a place of hopelessness. Yet these women have put more fear into the hearts of their portrayed enemy and have shaken the world. On the other side of the spectrum, it is tragic to see Taliban officials beating women, Muslim nations still enslaving African women, and Asian women who are being sold as sex slaves and having their lives threatened.
How ever anyone chooses to view the creation story or how life was created, must serve themselves well and humanity by recognizing Jah Almighty has made man AND woman, male AND female. Equality between male AND female is the cornerstone to the equalization of all of humanity. Again, we refer to history that H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I the First is the only African King of the long line of Kings to have Empress Menen crowned by HIS side to reign as King and Queen. InI as children of this monarchy would do ourselves a great service to remember that the Black man and Black woman bringing forth Black children create the Black family that builds the Black nation as any other people or nation on Jah green earth.
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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, March 24, 2002 to Saturday, March 30, 2002 Volume 2 No. 17 WEEKLY EDITION |
FREE THE WORLD!!!
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It is an honorable thought to know that the Earthday of Queen Omega Empress Menen, our Ethiopian Queen Mother, has the month of Women's History to emphasize the power of Black women and all women of the Earth. Her husband, H.I.M stated it would be a waste to educate women just to have them as housewives and domestic servants, for that you do not need education. We know as fact that Her Majesty used her time, money, and resources to further the education of women and young girls. In the time of Ethiopia's greatest need, she traveled and spoke to various women organizations to gain support and energy for the defense at home, as well as being a devoted Queen, wife, mother and grandmother to her people, husband, children and grandchildren. YES, Empress Menen did it all in a time where there were many more obstacles, less technology and advancement than today. Such an example, as well as others, should remind us all that LOVE is an unstoppable force. That is why we choose to reiterate last week's paper, to again stress the importance of:
Equality between male AND female is the cornerstone to the equalization of all of humanity.
The role of women in the fight for freedom is a story that needs to be visited. All of humanity must remember and hold to their hearts that peace must be sought before war. Women have used various methods to invoke their will to bring about peace or victory. The Ibo women of West Africa fought off the colonial masters who wanted to place taxes upon their people. The Black Cross Nurses of the UNIA, who in their white uniforms, prepared themselves to assist their comrades in war and in peace. The women of Chiapa farmed and cared their children in the day while preparing to fight as Zapatistas.
There have been women who have made significant impacts with their statesmanship as well as planning skills to make various outcomes. Great women as Winnie Mandela, Empress Taytu, Empress Menen, Harriet Tubman, and Amy Jacques Garvey manifested actions that until this day have yet to be replicated. The women's perspective in humanity is literally the other half. Without it, the great victories claimed by nations and by man becomes a half-truth.
We find today that in the struggles in the Middle East, there are now women suicide bombers. The world is a tragic place when women who are a nurturing force find themselves in such a place of hopelessness. Yet these women have put more fear into the hearts of their portrayed enemy and have shaken the world. On the other side of the spectrum, it is tragic to see Taliban officials beating women, Muslim nations still enslaving African women, and Asian women who are being sold as sex slaves and having their lives threatened.
How ever anyone chooses to view the creation story or how life was created, must serve themselves well and humanity by recognizing Jah Almighty has made man AND woman, male AND female. Equality between male AND female is the cornerstone to the equalization of all of humanity. Again, we refer to history that H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I the First is the only African King of the long line of Kings to have Empress Menen crowned by HIS side to reign as King and Queen. InI as children of this monarchy would do ourselves a great service to remember that, the Black man and Black woman bringing forth Black children create the Black family that builds the Black nation as any other people or nation on Jah green earth.
Give thanks for taking the time to read The RastafarI Collective
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