(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . FANA's MINISTER OF INTL AFFAIRS DELIVERS SPEECH ON BEHALF OF THE STATE OF AFRICAN DIASPORA [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-19 As people have been following my articles, those readers are familiar with the **Meshanicut Cultural Placemaking Festival held in Providence, Rhode Island from August 17 – 20, 2023. Representatives from many different countries came to take part in what turned out as a historical moment of Indigenous Peoples coming together from Africa, North America, Mexico, Central America, and South America. We had representatives from the Myan Tribes, The Garifuna, the KinakwiI Nation of Canada, Guiana, and The East Coast First Contact FANA member Tribes. The first two days of the event brought the different Representatives together to share their concerns that the Indigenous Nations had a right to take their place as Indigenous People amongst the countries where they dwelled. That they had a right to develop tourism, businesses, and trade. They had the right to have history corrected that addressed the horrific results of Colonization upon their people. It was brought to the attention of the attendees that the Prime Minister of the State of African Diaspora was unable to attend. He had written a speech to read during the event and the Prime Minister had reached out to Principal Chief Yonaguska to read his message. Attached below is the actual written speech from the Prime Minister of SOAD. ************************************************************************************* MESHANTICUT CULTURAL PLACEMAKING FESTIVAL SPEECH ON BEHALF OF THE STATE OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA Greetings to one and all - my name is Dr Louis-George Tin, the Prime Minister of the State of the African Diaspora and I would like to extend my profound thanks to Chief Yonaguska for delivering our message today at this beautiful event, the Meshanticut Cultural Placemaking Festival. The State of the African Diaspora is a State without borders. As you know, the African Diaspora started with all the people deported out of Africa during the periods of slavery. Not only were we displaced, but we lost our languages, a significant part of our culture, our attire, our indigenous and traditional knowledge systems, our educational systems, our system of prayers, the wisdom of our sacred elders, our way of life and of fundamental importance - our Land. In order to obliterate a nation, you do not need to kill every singe individual, you just need to infiltrate and implement these mechanisms and then stealthily and systematically eradicate or hide their history, their culture, their language. Thereby, in one or two generations, you will achieve a result just as effective, if not more so: what is called « ethnocide ». In other words, a genocide without bloodshed, a "cultural genocide", a genocide that is « soft », « clean » and almost invisible. And as we know, the Native people in the Americas were first victims of genocides, and then also victims of ethnocide, which is a way to “finish the job”, if I may say. This is why, the African Diaspora is kith and kin to the Native American Indians globally and all indigenous peoples as a whole. We share the same story, we share the same loss, we share the same traumas, we share the same pain. We are connected through the destruction and continued destruction of our way of life, communities and our environments. Or at least, that is what our enemies are trying to achieve. But we have a capacity of resilience and resistance that they had not expected, and we are doing more than survival. In fact, we are growing. We are back. It is within this context as to why it is fundamentally important that all indigenous cultural societies unite to work together and form their own solutions to bring about their own liberation and cultural renaissance. It is within this context that FANA and the State of the African Diaspora have forged an important alliance to be able to work diligently in various areas such as justice, restitution of cultural treasures, agriculture and socio-economic development, to name a few, to ensure that we no longer remain marginalised, abused, mistreated and exploited by foreign powers. Thus, we are proud to be working with FANA to ensure that we repair and remedy the generational desecration that was purposefully and strategically inflicted upon natural indigenous peoples and nations. Our collaboration shall be a symbol of collective unity, social accord, spiritual well-being and economic development We wish all our extended indigenous family here at the Meshanticut Cultural Placemaking Festival a wonderful and joyous day! Uhuru meaning liberty in swahili, which is one of the official languages of our State, let met say for all of us a strong and vibrant UHURU !” **If you are unfamiliar with the Confestival held in August--Please read my article about the Confestival in Providence, RI. Link is below FANA’s 1st Annual Meshanicut Cultural Placemaking Confestival in Providence, Rhode Island [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/19/2200114/-FANA-s-MINISTER-OF-INTL-AFFAIRS-DELIVERS-SPEECH-ON-BEHALF-OF-THE-STATE-OF-AFRICAN-DIASPORA?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/