Dissident Veteran For Peace

"Amerykahn Promise" on Erykah Badu's new album, New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, is my current favorite song. I like it even better than "Honey" on the same album, which I like a lot. The lyrics to "Amerykahn Promise" are rich with ancient Egyptian religious references and sophisticated criticism of modern America and I don't pretend understand even half of them. Every time I listen the song yields a new gem from the surface and depths of it's funky rhythm. For example, at the end a little girl (Ma'at?; pictured at right) asks "Has anyone seen my 42 laws"? This a reference to the 42 laws (or negative confessions) of Ma'at and, obviously, Amerykah hasn't heard of them and doesn't follow them--"Oh, I'm sorry. We're not responsible for lost articles and thangs." Any way, take a listen for yourself.


Addendum: Click the link at right to read the "Negative Confession" as translated by E. A. Wallis Budge in The Egyptian Book of the Dead (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1898).

Last revised: 14 June 2014 – Replaced image file to image with Ma'at holding papyrus staff; add source link to image file; fixed broken links to Hooker's article on the 42 laws; add link to Budge's book; correct spelling errors; replaced previous video with one that has the full track.

Labels: Erykah Badu, music, religion, United States, video

Dear Erykah Badu,

I salute you for your courageous and well-intentioned remarks in Tel Aviv last January. But please know that the Palestinian people, with whom you identify, have a called for an international boycott of the Jewish apartheid state of Israel. I hope you will not only honor that call but do your part to promote it. In the 1980s, the artists listed below wouldn't "play Sun City" in White apartheid South Africa and I hope you won't play Tel Aviv again until Israeli apartheid is smashed and gone. For your information, at the bottom of this post is the text of the Call for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

• Steven Van Zandt
• Miles Davis
• Kool DJ Herc
• Grandmaster Melle Mel
• Ruben Blades
• Bob Dylan
• Herbie Hancock
• Ringo Starr
• Zak Starkey
• Lou Reed
• Run DMC
• Peter Gabriel
• David Ruffin
• Eddie Kendricks
• Darlene Love
• Bobby Womack
• Afrika Bambaataa
• Kurtis Blow
• Jackson Browne
• Darryl Hannah
• U2
• George Clinton
• Keith Richards
• Ron Wood
• Bonnie Raitt
• Hall & Oates
• Jimmy Cliff
• Big Youth
• Michael Monroe
• Peter Garrett
• Ron Carter
• Ray Barretto
• Gil-Scott Heron
• Nona Hendryx
• Pat Benatar
• Joey Ramone

Whereas Israel’s colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, which is based on Zionist ideology, comprises the following:

· Denial of its responsibility for the Nakba -- in particular the waves of ethnic cleansing and dispossession that created the Palestinian refugee problem -- and therefore refusal to accept the inalienable rights of the refugees and displaced stipulated in and protected by international law;

· Military occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and UN resolutions;

· The entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa;

Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence,

Given that all forms of international intervention have until now failed to force Israel to comply with international law or to end its repression of the Palestinians, which has manifested itself in many forms, including siege, indiscriminate killing, wanton destruction and the racist colonial wall,

In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community of scholars and intellectuals have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in their struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott,

Recognizing that the growing international boycott movement against Israel has expressed the need for a Palestinian frame of reference outlining guiding principles,

In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,

We, Palestinian academics and intellectuals, call upon our colleagues in the international community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:

Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;

Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;

Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions;

Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;

Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.

Endorsed by:

Labels: apartheid, boycott, Erykah Badu, Israel, music, Palestine, resistance, South Africa, video, Zionism

Erykah Badu got the attention of the Associated Press last week when she reportedly "said she identifies with Palestinian hip-hop and expressed support for Louis Farrakhan before a crowd of Israeli fans and journalists Thursday." The short piece goes on to say:

The singer, who couldn't name any Israeli hip-hop artists, said she identified best with the Palestinians and their hip-hop scene, saying they are part of her "tribe" of hip-hop.
"They use (hip-hop) as a form of liberation, as a form of pre-resistance, as a form of therapy," she said.

Ha'aretz and the Jerusalem Post both republished the AP story and their readers left lots of interesting comments here and here. One hopes that Badu got the permission of Palestinians to perform in Israel as the Jewish apartheid state is currently under a cultural and economic boycott.

In any case, the AP report reminded me of the November 1, 1970, "Appeal by Black Americans Against United States Support of the Zionist Government of Israel", published in the New York Times (p. 172) by the Committee of Black Americans for Truth About the Middle East. The statement was signed by a number of Detroit activists, including Grace and James Boggs and the Reverend Albert B. Cleage Jr., founder of the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Among other things, the appeal expressed "complete solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters", denounced "King Hussein's slaughter of Palestinian refugees and freedom-fighters", noted the alliance of apartheid South Africa and Israel, and quoted Yassir Arafat as follows: "Our political vision for a free Palestine is a democratic, secular, non-racial state where all Palestinians--Christians, Jews, and Muslims--will have equal rights."


Props to no snow here for alerting me to the Erykah Badu story, via criticalbloggers.org, and to Stop Raping Palestine for clueing me into the "Appeal by Black Americans ..."

I liked Badu's 1997 Baduizm but haven't really followed her music since then but I really like the video for "Honey" from the New Amerikah album. The two vids below are both from the Palestinian hip hop group, DAM.

See also:

• Black American Anti-Zionism II

Labels: apartheid, Black America, Erykah Badu, Israel, music, Palestine, resistance, video