african trumpet edition 14_AFRITRUMPET NEW UK 1/27/2011 10:57 AM Page 3


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Special Feature


Africantrumpet-The voice of Africans 3


Out Of Africa presents MICHAEL ADEKOGE


A spotlight on achievers who are either Africans or People of African descent


Born in Lagos West Africa, raised in the United States, Michael began his career in dance as a breakout Midwest sensation, teaming up with top hip- hop chorographers such as Yana G, Kat Bornoff, Caesar Rusell and Pazazz performing in over 60 shows with local artist in the Midwest. Michael is the first African to win four United States Professional Showdance Championships and a fifth place position in the world.


With championship titles in hand, opportunities came and soon Michael began sharing stages, performing with celebri- ties and legends such as R&B Super Star AKON, Prince, Jude


Away


Away, Esera Tualo, Kool and the Gang (Skip Martin) and Lani Misalucha in Las Vegas Showrooms.


In 2008, Michael direct- ed and starred in his own first musical dance play titled, ‘Back to the


Motherland’. The show debuted in 2009 to a sold out audience in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


Today Michael is a well sought after


Artist,


teaching Latin dance at the Millennium Dance Complex, while acting and making special appearances as a stand up comedy all over California. He recently served as a judge on the number one show Maltina Dance All in Lagos Nigeria which, was seen by over 50 mil- lion viewers.


Michael’s path to star- dom proves what the human spirit can accom- plish when relentless drive and determination converge with dreams. His long and arduous journey from West Africa to become one of the most accomplished and innovative dancer and artist alive today is an inspiration to all who face overwhelming obstacles and challenges along their road to success.


THE TRUTH ABOUT GLOBALIZATION


new. In Africa, it was ini- tiated by the slave trade and given impetus by colonialism and Christian missionaries. The early missionaries saw African culture and religion as a deadly adversary and as an evil that had to be elimi- nated.


In 1876, a 27-year-old missionary named Mary Slessor emigrated from Scotland to spend the rest of her life in Nigeria. For her efforts in trying to covert the people of Nigeria, Mary Slessor’s photograph appears on Scotland’s ten pound note, and her name can be found on schools, hospitals and roads in Nigeria.


The introduction to Mary Slessor’s


biography


titled: “White Queen of the Cannibals” is reveal-


– By Philip Emeagwali,


Dr.Emeagwali helped give birth to the supercomputer - the technology that spawned the Internet. He won the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, which has been dubbed the “Nobel Prize of Supercomputing


Globalization


or the ability of many people, ideas and tech-


nol-


ogy to move from coun- try to country - is not


ing: “On the west coast of Africa is the country of Nigeria. The chief city is Calabar,” said Mother Slessor. “It is a dark country because the light of the Gospel is not shining brightly there. Black people live


there. Many of these are cannibals who eat other people.” “They're bad people, aren't they, Mother?”


asked little Susan. “Yes, they are bad, because no one has told them about Jesus, the Saviour from sin, or showed them what is right and what is wrong.”


These opening words clearly show that Mary Slessor came to Africa on a mission to indoctri- nate us with Christian theology.


She told us we wor- shipped an inferior god


According to the US Treasury Department, 450 of the 650 workers who built the White House and the Capitol were African slaves.


Because the White House and Capitol are the two most visible symbols of American democra- cy, it is important to inform all schoolchildren in our globalized world that these institutions are the results of the sweat and toil of mostly African workers.


and that we belonged to an inferior race.


She worked to expel what she described as “savagism” from our cul- ture and heritage and to encourage European “civilization” to take root in Africa. We accepted the mis- sion schools which were established to enlighten us, without questioning the unforeseen costs of our socalled education. These mission schools plundered our children’s self-esteem by teaching them that, as Africans they were inherently “bad people.”


Our children grew up not wanting to be citizens of Africa. Instead, their education fostered the colonial deal that they would be better off becoming citizens of the colonizing nations. I speak of the price Africans have paid for their education and “enlightenment” from personal experience. I was born “Chukwurah,” but my missionary schoolteachers insisted I drop my “heathen” name. The prefix “Chukwu” in my name is the Igbo word for “God.” Yet, somehow, the mis-


sionaries insisted that “Chukwurah” was a name befitting a godless pagan.


The Catholic Church renamed me “Philip,” and Saint Philip became my patron and protector, replacing God, after whom I was named. I have to argue that something more than a name has been lost. Something central to my heritage has been stripped away.


This denial of our past is the very antithesis of a good education. Our names represent not only our heritage, but connect us to our par- ents and past. As parents, the names we choose for our chil- dren reflect our dreams for their future 4


and our perceptions of the treasures they repre- sent to us.


My indoctrination went far deeper than just a name. The missionary school tried to teach me that saints make better role models than scien- tists.


Continued in the Next edition.


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