Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

Why Black History Month Is Important to Me

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 10, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThis message was read to the children of the Robert Clark School, Dagenham, Essex (part of greater London) England, on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, in celebration of Black History Month. I thank Lara Akinn for offering me the opportunity to contribute this message to their celebration.
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Living As Dogs, Part 1

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 06, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am glad Brian MacFarlane has agreed to withhold a section of his 2017 presentation, “Cazabon-The Art of Living.” MacFarlane has argued that the Cazabon era, which he identified as the 1880s and 1890s, “was the most beautiful time—art was fabulous, fashion was glorious, and the architecture was amazing and full of such intricate details.” Two questions arise: “A beautiful time for whom?” and, “What was happening to Indo-Trinidadians during the Cazabon period?”
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“Yuh Nastiness”

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 31, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAt the last US presidential debate when Donald Trump looked over at Hillary Clinton and said, “Such a nasty woman,” he sounded the death knell of his campaign. It was almost like looking at Hillary with disdain and saying in Trini language, “Yuh nastiness.”

This insult has had a more devastating effect on Trump’s candidacy than anything else he has said or done previously. Not even his infamous boast about grabbing women’s genitals has had such a devastating effect on his White House ambitions. “Nasty woman” has become a rallying cry among women and that, as they say in T&T, was the end of Solomon Gundi.
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Black Lives Matter: A Footnote to History

Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 25, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI delivered these remarks at the “Battle of Ideas Festival” organized by the Institute of Ideas and held at the Barbican Center, London, England. The panel, entitled, “From Black Panthers to #Black Lives Matter: Race in America” was sponsored by Newsweek, the European edition. These remarks, “A Footnote to History,” were delivered on Saturday, October 22, 2016.
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Black Advocacy in T&T

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 18, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI wish to take up where I left off last Sunday to examine the implication of the “Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Dissent on Its Mission to the United States” for Trinidad and Tobago since there is an assumption that these reports have no relevance to our society. Sometimes we even refuse to believe that the slave experience lies at the base of our society masking our origin under the umbrella of an illusionary multiculturalism.
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Always Remember

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 09, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn academic and political lectures, when I refer to the negative psychological and economic impact slavery has had on black people, my questioners usually retort: “You have to bring up slavery again?”

The same people who object to my bringing up slavery’s impact upon black people have no objections when Jews urge their people: “Never forget!”
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Extremisms in the Defense of Liberty

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 03, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThis year’s US presidential election is perhaps the strangest of them all. In 1964, I witnessed my first US election when Barry Goldwater of Arizona challenged President Lyndon Johnson in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. As a Southerner, he realized the difficult tasks that faced the nation. His challenge was to insure that black citizens enjoyed the same rights as white citizens which he achieved when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color or religion. In 1965, he signed the Voting Rights Act that removed the legal barriers that prevented blacks from voting.
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Integrity and Probity

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 27, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am an old timer. I believe integrity in public life predates the establishment of the Integrity Committee. My mother, born in 1909, used to say: “When ah dead, if anybody say ah owe dem any money, tell dem dey lie.” Her word was her bond. She believed each of us possesses an innate sense of what is right and wrong which tells us when we have transgressed those boundaries. Such a credo was part of an ethical value system that we, as black people, learned from our nineteenth-century ancestors. In those days, we did not need an Integrity Committee to tell us what constitutes ethical behavior.
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Every Cook Can Govern

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 19, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday of this week, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival shall premier “Every Cook Can Govern: The Life, Impact & Works of C. L. R. James,” a film that was produced by Worldwrite, an English non-profit or charity organization. The producers describe this documentary as “The world’s first film on the life of a fearless and uncompromising revolutionary.” There is much truth in advertising here. “Every Cook Can Govern” is a well-crafted and informative film about one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most distinguished intellectuals and Marxist theoreticians.
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The Monumentality of it All

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 14, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt’s Sunday, September 4th. I am in Rome, Italy. The sun is ablaze but it is not a Trinidad hot sun. There is no breeze and the heat radiates from the earth, making you feel as if you are being roasted alive. I visit the Palazzo Barberini, the National Gallery of Ancient Art that was conceived to celebrate the artistic passion of Maffeo Barberini who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623. As a cardinal, he sponsored many artists with his patronage.
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