Page 2...The Portland Observer...August 5,1992
p e r s p e c tiv e s
I
Professor M c K in L y Burt
N o S p a r e P a rts II
In Iasi w eek's chapter I made the
point that there was a direct parallel
betw een the many aspects o f the
economy of the developing nation ot
Ghana in Africa, and the subeconomy
of blacks in this country. In Ghana, the
people are beginning to replace the
“inappropriate technology” thrust upon
them by the former colonizers with
"appropriate technology" built upon
many centuries of expertise in such
crafts as m etallurgy-and upon social
organization strategy developed over
the same time period.
Unfortunately, African Americans
have not begun to replace the systems
thrust upon them at the establishment
with "appropriate technology" struc
tured around a number of proven and
documented technical and social skills.
This heritage has been documented in
books like Haber’s “Black Pioneers of
Science and Invention" (Harcourt,
Brace & World 1979), and in my book
“Black Inventorsof America" (National
Book Co., Portland 1969).
There are many other sources avail
ab le now , even ex h ib its at the
superconservative Smithsonian Insti
tution in Washington, D.C. and in the
pages of this Observer Newspaper, I
have written reams of documentation
that blacks for over a century were
inventing machines and operating tech
nical enterprises without intervention
and guidance from the white establish
ment. I have cited the 1895 “ Atlanta
Cotton States and International Exposi
tion” where African Americans dis
played and sold their patented machin
ery, mining, locomotives, textile and
logging technology, agricultural imple
ments and so forth (see the Congres
sional Record for August 10, 1894,
House of Representatives).
There were many other exposition
and demonstrations Philadelphia, Co
ney Island (The "Third Rail" tor sub
way trains by W'oods), and even the
“Paris Exposition” circa 1906). There
is an immediate urge to speculate where
“we went wrong” but, first, let us return
to an examination of the current eco
nomic scene in Ghana. As I have said,
this “No Spare Parts” television docu
mentary narrated by David Suzuki re
minded me of my experiences in early
youth around the black craftsmen in
industry.
W'hat happened in Ghana was that
the “Cashcrop” economy of cocoa im
posed upon the nation, first by the
colonialists and then by the interna
tional bankers, had frequent downturns
that not only left the people impover
ished, but left no monies to keep the
vital transportation modes going. A
tropical climate is hard on both vehicles
and roads, and of course there was little
money to import new vehicles, Alrican
ingenuity, traditions, and millennium-
old skills have come to the rescue.
Suzuki; takes us on a tour of the
Suami Magazine, “one of the biggest
unplanned industrial areas in the world;
a huge, informal economy has sprung
up around the repair and maintenance
of automobiles and trucks. Here in the
open air, admist the seeming chaos, lies
the hub of Ghana's industrial revolu
tion; the forty thousand artisans who
specialize in servicing and repairing
trucks and cars, busses, and farm equip
ment ply a brisk trade here “(In viewing
this, 1 got a mental image of all the
African Americans I’ve known, who
work on their own equipment, gathered
in one place).
It became clear to Ghana’s Tech
nological Center in the 1970’s “that
high tech equipment imported from
industrialized countries had little use in
a developing country. Grass roots or
“appropriate technology” was instituted
and local blacksmiths began turning
out nuts and bolts by hand. “Every bolt
was individually hammered into its fa
miliar hexagonal shape. Its companion
nut is also made by hand and, later, both
nut and bolt will be threaded manually
with tap and die.”
Keep in mind that these Africans
on the West Coast of the continent had,
by the time the slave traders arrived,
developed the craft of iron smelting and
blacksmithing to a very sophisticated
level. There were three primary divi
sions: Those who made agricultural
implements, those who made cooking
utensils, and the makers of weapons. It
is no wonder that the British in the
American colonies used these slaves to
replace the German bond servants on
their iron plantations-and that the
American plantation owners used them
as the blacksmiths who kept the planta
tion machinery and transportation in
repair (see Lewis, “Coal Iron and
Slaves”, Greenwood 1970").
Back to today’s Ghana. The hand
technology I just described achieved
the desired result of familiarizing tens
olihousands with tools and techniques.
The people were soon prepared for the
next level of “appropriate” technology
they were able to B UILD THEIR OWN
MACHINES FOR TURNING OUT
HIGHER QUALITY PRODUCTS-
cven constructing turret lathes, milling
machines and the like from the motors
and other parts of abandoned cars and
trucks. Soon these would be put back
on the road and vital transportation
restored.
A “ neighborhood technology”
spread throughout the nation, creating
jobs, plants, capital and spinoffs into
agricultural machines and food pro
cessing machinery. The social infra
structure expanded as well, bringing
new services from medical to educa
tion and n u tritio n . It was E.F.
Schumacher who said what the ad
vanced nations have forgotten; “The
logic of production [for production’s
sake] is neither the logic of life nor that
of society” (see his famous book,“Small
Is Beautiful: Economics As If People
Mattered,” Harper & Row, 1973 &
1989).
Since black people in this country
were doing the very same thing right
after slavery and up to World War I,
1915 What the hell happened to us?
Has it been leadership, mostly social
types, politicians and lawyers? Was
Booker T. Washington right and our
present economic state the result of
taking a wrong turn very early on? I
noted in the July 22 comments of a
contributor to thispaper JamesL. Posey;
“ Black solutions No Money, No
Money.” He said “ Most of our leaders
nationally and locally have no business
or econom ic developm ent b ack
ground.” And certainly no technical
and science background at all!
in t h e m o o t i n o
3
Concluded next week.
House Urges Continued Funding Of
Multnomah County Gang Intervention Project
A must-pass funding bill approved
by the House last night directs the Jus
tice Department to keep up its past
support of Multnomah County’s gang
intervention program. The bill provides
more than $72 million nationwide to
fight youth gangs and crime, about $64
million more than President Bush rec
ommended earlier this year.
“This so-called ‘law-and-order’
Bush Administration has got its priori
ties all wrong.” Says Congressman Les
AuCoin. “What we need are more re
sources to deal with the problems of
youth gangs, teenage crime, and drug
abuse. As a member of the committee
that wrote this bill, I’m proud that we
recognized that,even ifthe White House
doesn’t.
Last year, AuCoin helped the county
secure a $500,000 federal grant to sup
port its innovative anti-gang efforts. The
1993 budget for Juvenile Justice pro
grams urges the Justice Department to
keep funding Multnomah County’s gang
intervention program at the same level
Joseph E Elliott (center), president of Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, holds an oversized copy
of a check for $10,000 he presented to the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) recently
during the american Library Association convention in San Francisco. BCALA will use the funds for a reception
for 1 000 librarians at its first annual convention in September. Accepting the check from Elliott are (from left/ Dr.
John Tyson state librarian of Virginia: Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, deputy director of the Forsythe County (N.C.)
Public Library: Satia Marshall Orange, head of children's department at Forsythe County Public Library; Pubye
Kyles, assistant executive director of the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library; and Dr Alex Boyd, director of
the Newark (N.J.) Public Library. All are BCALA conference planners
in the coming year. The anti-gang pro
gram also receives strong support from
the state and local governments and
involves various community organiza
tions.
“MultnomahCounty’sprogram help
kids stay out of gangs by restructuring
their values systems, building positive
behavior, and giving kids alternatives to
crime, drugs, and gang involvement,”
AuCoin said. “Building self-esteem and
giving kids positive choices is one of the
best ways to fight the influence of gangs.”
African American Views On
The Environment: Conclusion
BY PROF. MCKINLEY BURT
'
Publisher
Alfred Henderson
Production Staff
Operations Manager
Dean Babb
Gary Ann Garnett
Rea Washington
Contributing Writers
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Dan Bell
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Bill Council
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Joyce Washington
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Gary Ann Garnett
Public Relations
Chuck Washington
Sales & Promotions
Tony Washington
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1
!
I staled in the July 22 article in this
scries, “the world is indeed a Global
I Village and the continents arc poison
ing each other.” Today I will carry that
'® I|e ^ x irtIa n h < ® b s e ru c r ]
concept beyond the conventional me
reports on the destruction of tropi
I
■ dia
cal forests in the lands of peoples of
I
I color. We will deal with some issues
IT he P ortland O bserver
that the media seem reluctant to ad
[ CAN BE SENT DIRECTLY TO
dress.
Few Americans, yet today, realize
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that the United States is one of the chief
PER YEAR.
COLONIAL POWERS in the w orld-
never-mind die Hawaii and Alaska are
P lease fill out ,
now designated as “slates," certainly
ENCLOSE CHECK OR
the economic and political hegemony
MONEY ORDER,
is maintained. And in the Caribbean
there is the situation of Puerto Rico and
and M ail to :
of the Virgin Islands. In common here,
we have the economic and political
control
of peoples of color by Ameri
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1 can industry
and agricultural corpora
■ T he P ortland O bserver ■ tions which arc not answerable loeilher
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| the indigenous population of American
I P ortland , O regon 9 7 2 0 8 | voters.
And then there is the situation in
the SOUTH PACIFIC where the United
I Name
■ States controls (owns) tens of thou
|
I sands of square miles of island territo
I
I ries under “ United Nation Trustee
| ----------------------------- “ I ships.” Like the “country” of Panama
in this hemisphere (and in reality, all of
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Central America and most of South
America), these island territories occu
erfy. State_____________
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pied by people of color have no real
control over their resources or sover
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eignty. Particularly, most of the Ameri
cas may not negotiate treaties with
¡ T hank Y ou F or R eading
European nations because of lhat“Mon-
¡T he P ortland O bserver | roc Doctrine" invoked long ago t o ’pro-
tccl the strategic interests of the United
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States.”
It is not Broadway plays and Hol
lywood movies like “South Pacific”
we m usi look to for an understand ing of
the economic and political dynamics
controlling the Pacific territories of the
United States. We will take for a model
the large island of Palau which in the
last year has been the frequent topic of
documentaries on Public Television.
Most of the population looks exactly
like the black residents of Northeast
Portland, a fact attested to by African
American naval personnel in respect of
their home cities.
The U.S. has a large naval pres
ence here (“strategic interests”), amid
increasingly vitriolic,even violcntcon-
frontations with American administra
tors. Of particular concern to the Palau
people is the U.S. dem and that
NUCLEAR POWERED SHIPS AND
SUBMARINES be allowed to use the
harbor facilities. A short while back
the Palau people, within the limited
sovereignty granted them by the United
Nations, voted decisively against any
such environment-threatening activity-
-they now have a “NUCLEAR FREE
CONSTITUTION” (Like Portland’s
“Nuclear Free Declaration”).
Predictably, the United Stales has
reacted with anger and has been ac
cused by the people of procuring vote
frauds, even murder of a key politician
opposing the nuclear hazard. The
Americans arc pushing for a special
referendum which would guaranteed
storage space for nuclear bombs. The
United Nations has demanded that the
U.S. respect the constitution ol these
people to no avail These people do not
have the clout of Okinawa where two-
thirds of the people want all American
Naval installations closed down.
The people of Palau were well
rcprescntedatthat“World Conference
of Indigenous Peoples On Territory,
Environmentand Development” which
look place just before that “World
Summit on Environment” in Brazil.
They expressed a well-founded con
cern that if America got a foot in the
door, then they might well have to face
other environmental concerns. All Pa
cific Islanders remember the decades
of nuclear bomb testing in the area by
both the French and Americans-and
that the devastation (and radioactivity)
may last for many centuries.
It is interesting to note that under
the “gentle” hand of U.S. administra
tors the economy of Palau is deterio
rating with high unemployment and
increasing crime -this, among a people
who were noted for their fine family
and other soc ial relationships. The pres
sure is on, and in one documentary an
American administrator was inter
viewed at length. It was like listening
to the Dixiccrat senators, Russell or
Bilbo, reincarnated; as condescending
and denigrating as you would expect
from an Indian agent in the old w est-
not from a U.S. Navy Admiral.
It is to be hoped that ALL peoples
wherever and whoever are going to
keep up the good fight against the
environm ental desperados of this
world By the way, did you know that
John Audubon was black-the son of a
West Indies woman and a French -ca
captain? W ill they disband the
“Audubon Society?"