Solidarity with Exiled Ones

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday April 25, 2003 16:01 by Autognome - Spk/EO

Urgent solidarity is needed to support our comrades Aisha and Bankole. Don't be a lazy bastards, help them out!

Urgent solidarity!

Comrades around Ireland, we post this e-mail on the indymedia.ie to inform you about the current situation of our comrades, Aisha and Bankole.

They are in need of YOUR support, read this e-mail and visit their website to understand the complexity of their situation, then do something. They are in need of YOUR solidarity, TODAY.

Don't hesitate to contact them, they need your support and your solidarity,

Friends of Aisha & Bankole, Ireland

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Peace & Blessings Everyone:

Aisha and I want to relay our thanks for your time in various meetings. We have received the Irish forms for teaching work permit applicants here. Aisha is getting set to file a work permit application at the Swedish embassy soon.

This e-mail is quite lengthy but we feel that spelling things out is the best way to help you to assist us.

We feel that it's important to understand our people's right to be heard. The complexity of our personal situation - that is one of being banned from the country where we were born (USA) due to our cultural and political views can be understood through giving us a platform to perform the music of our experience as well as speaking. These are things we're often denied by organizations, corporations and governments. Please keep reading for specifics on what we can offer.

There's a war going on against our people and our culture. We feel that people opposed to the war in Iraq have an obligation to assist those of us who have fought American imperialism for many years and paid a price for it. Aisha's father refused to fight for America during World War II long before anti-war protests were popular or fashionable. Thus part of the reason for her exile of today.

Cultural Appropriation

Soon it will be the season of music festivals in Europe flying in countless numbers of white American musicians and others to appropriate our culture and speak for us. This will be done while they continue to deny us the right to perform the music of our genuine experience (not that of Missy Elliot!) We are denied the right to perform, define, discuss and write about our own music and culture.

This illegitimate, poorly performed copy of our music has become a multi-billion dollar business from which we are completely exclued.

We ask that you exercise fair trade by helping us continue our true culture and political struggle. This can be done by arranging speaking engagements/booksignings and performances in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast, Derry, and various cities across Ireland.

We can offer the following:

Bankole - Booksignings and Talks

Bankole has written 2 booklets: ExiledOne, an African from America and Political Refugee Volumes I & II

He speaks on his experiences as a writer, researcher, journalist, African-American exile (5 years) and former editor of "The Commentator" one of the first and only national Black newspapers in the US.

Past talks have included: "The Truth About What Happened to the Black Movement for Justice in America" and talks on American media propoganda such as: "The People vs. CNN - Are you Disconnected from Reality"

He also speaks about the US society, growing up there, the prison industrial complex, youth issues, what global solidarity means at this time to Africans in America. These include discussion and question and answer.

Minimum Fee: €75.00
Aisha - Concerts & Workshops

Aisha performs authentic, traditional, African-American music with feeling, fire, beauty and a political edge. The type of music that is censored, the type that they say doesn't exist anymore.

She sings solo at the piano. Her singing (35+ years experience) is in the tradition of the greats of Soul, Blues and Jazz, her Uncle Talley Beatty http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/biographies/beatty.html having toured with Duke Ellington.

Minimum Guarenteed Fee: €225.00 - €250.00
Music Workshops, Talks & Discussions on the politics of Censorship of African-American Music and Women Artists:

"A Culture in Context - The African roots of African-American music (Soul, Blues, Jazz, Hop Hop)" and the politics of censorship of authentic African-American music. Includes live performance, demonstrations with vocals and at the piano, and a component on how to properly sing and play this music.

For Women's Groups: Workshops and talks on the Global Music Industry and it's negative effects on women artists.

Storytelling with live music and singing for children ages 5-12

Minimum Guarenteed Fee for workshops: €200.00
Fair Trade

We ask that your organization or party support us by helping in these areas as well as purchasing a number of books and CDs. This is a practical way to aid the anti-war effort as well as to engage in some fair trade with us as exiles. Your support is very much needed and appreciated. Thanks very much to those of you who have purchased books and CDs.

People in Sweden and The UK were great with 3 tours of Sweden and a recent tour of Scotland, Wales, and England where 100's of people turned up at events and bought books and CDs. We are hoping the same for Ireland.

What we offer - our products:

Bankole's Booklets:

"ExiledOne - An African from America and US Political Refugee Volume I"
"ExiledOne - An African from America and US Political Refugee Volume II"
€7.50 each
Aisha's CDs: On "The Soulful Expression" record label. Our underground Music Company and record label in exile

"My Gift is My Culture" A double CD of superb recording quality, featuring Aisha on vocals and solo at the Grand Piano. CD 1Recorded where the Swedish Symphony Orchestra records, CD 2 in a packed Cafe in Uppsala Sweden, 2002.
€18.00

"I Dream" Recorded with a quartet (sax, piano, vocals, drums, bass) live in London, UK, also featuring selected songs with Aisha on all instruments recorded in one of Stockholm's best studios for live music, 2002.
€15.00

"Hustler's Revolution" Recorded in the studio in Stockholm, Sweden, 2001. Sweet, Soulful and Political featuring Aisha on all instruments, background and lead vocals.
€15.00

"The Soulful Expression of an African from America" Recorded live in Toronto, Canada 2000 with a quartet (flute, drums, percussion, bass, piano/keyboards, vocals).
€15.00
Remember: 90% of the "jazz musicians" at this year's festivals will not be African-American. In fact many will be white Americans playing substandard music, and appropriating our culture. This is due to racism and blacklisting. Your support is very much needed in order for us to continue our culture.

Your assistance in these other areas is also crucial! It's urgent.

Medical Assistance
Both of us were fortunate to get underground medical attention in Sweden a year ago. Now, however, there is a painful ear problem I have, that keeps me from hearing well and from flying. I need to see a specialist (Bankole). Aisha too, needs attention for her hearing (partial deafness since childhood) and natural, alternative medicine to withstand her stress, in Ireland. She suffers from panic disorder.
Legal Advice about performing in Ireland quietly

International Legal Assistance
Aisha and I face critical times. We were illegally ordered out of Canada during an appeal in our UN Political Refugee claims. An expert who testified in our 1999 Immigration Refugee Board hearing stated that ours was the most legally credible case of US citizens filing for asylum, in his experience. But we were suddenly given just 30 days to pack up and leave before our Appeal was decided. As we mentioned, we are requesting any help available to find lawyers in Canada, that can file a lawsuit against Canada, on our behalf.

We are banned Africans from America, so called African Americans and are stateless. Our political beliefs and activities on behalf of the African people are unacceptable to the US regime. See: www.geocities.com/exiledone2002/index.html for details. Since 1997, Aisha and I have lived in Canada, Sweden, England and Wales. We both are longtime teachers and public speakers.

Thanks for all of your help, love and support!!! Please contact me as soon as possible if you know of anyone who can help in these areas.

E-mail Bankole and Aisha at: bankole_irungu@hotmail.com

More questions? visit our FAQ page (link on the home page)

We know that this is long, but important - thanks for reading we hope that this little reminder will help understand what we're seeking here in Ireland and how we can work with you to get the job done!