3:12BGood morning, Miss Barbara.
3:14AAll right, it’s very nice to have you here. It’s always good because you’re enlightening and refreshing. You know, you add a special touch to the Steel Pan Vibes Spotlight, whether you’re being interviewed or whether you’re interviewing someone.
3:28BThank you. I believe it’s been a while since I’ve been interviewed, actually, so it feels a little bit different.
3:32AReally? That’s true, that’s true. Well, we can give you the Swahili greeting of abarigani, and you just say abarigani too.
3:42BBarigani. All right, that’s right.
3:45AWell, we want to thank you again for joining us to give us a little update on issues affecting the Black community. Now we know you’re gifted, you’ve written 17 books on Pan-African issues. We know you’re ambitious, you have a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University. We know you’ve given back to the community by being a substitute teacher in Orlando, and now you’re a student of law at Barry University. What -- what -- congratulations, first of all, and tell us what motivated you to study law.
4:22BI mean, the funny thing about me studying law is it was one of those things where everyone else was telling me I should study law, but I never had an interest. In studying law, so I finally decided to, you know, take the advice I was getting from other people. You know, I applied to law school and actually got into the first school that I applied to.
4:40ASo what were these people saying to you? What kinds of things? Why you should do law?
4:44BWell, I mean, just different reasons. A common one that I’ve been getting is just the work I’ve been doing in the community. Some people felt like being a lawyer would help advance the community work that I’ve been doing as an activist. The other thing people are saying, just, you know, I love to argue.
5:01AYeah.
5:02BYou know, getting those debates up. You know, people felt like that’s a good profession for someone like me.
5:06AThat’s right. That’s right. But the work you’re doing in the community, I think it will be very helpful. You want to explain a little more now that you, you know, started law school, how that field will fit into issues affecting the Black community?
5:24BYeah, it fits very well. And actually one of the first issues that I got involved with when I began my community work was with an organization called Speak Up Florida, which addresses mass incarceration and the issue of the prison industrial complex. And that is a legal issue and that’s an issue that civil rights lawyers have been addressing. One of the things that we did as an organization is we did study sessions on a book called The New Jim Crow, which is by a lawyer named Michelle Alexander. So going into law school, I already saw where there was a lot of legal issues in the community that needs to be addressed, you know, by lawyers and people that have, you know, those type of skills in terms of understanding the system and how it works.
6:05AMm-hmm. Good, good. So you’re involved with an organization, you’re very busy, called the Federation of African Liberation. You want to tell us a little bit about it? You know, why it was formed and why it’s important to you?
6:21BYes, it was actually formed to continue the legacy that Malcolm X left behind with his organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity. And what he wanted to do with that organization was to unite all the Africans in the diaspora who were spread throughout the Americas with those on the African continent. So when we first formed our organization, we actually took the charter, the original charter that Malcolm X had written up for his organization, And we rewrote it to address a more modern context because Malcolm created his organization in the ’60s and we face much of the same issues, but I mean, obviously 50 years later there’s a lot of things that we’re dealing with that Malcolm didn’t have to deal with. So essentially what we’re doing with this organization is just trying to update what Malcolm X was doing. And we continue the same legacy of trying to unify Africans throughout the diaspora so that we could also unite with the people on the African continent.
7:10ADwayne, what would you say would be a basic position in uniting people of African descent in the diaspora? A basic thing, because we can talk about unity as we were talking, you know, before the show, but what would it take? What would it take? What would we have to, apart from being African descendants, what would we need to have in common?
7:35BWell, I think one of the areas that we’ve actually had success in trying to bring about this unity is, I mean, as a people, wherever we find ourselves, we do face common struggles of fighting against oppression. And we have many members -- we’re based mostly in the United States, and most of the members that formed the organization live in the United States. But we actually have many members that are from the Caribbean islands. And one of the reasons why we’re attracting membership is because we’re speaking to some of the struggles that we see going on in in those countries. And we also speak to things going on in Africa as well.
8:07BLike, for example, Cameroon. And we don’t really see much about this in the media, but there’s a civil war going on right now in Cameroon, and we’re attracting many people from Cameroon or from the African continent to see what they’re speaking out on these issues. So for us, we’re not just saying African unity just for the sake of saying unity. We recognize that we face a common oppression throughout the world. So our goal is to help to unite us so that we can assist each other in our struggles. And I mean, like I said, this issue is going on in Cameroon. There’s many issues going on throughout Africa, throughout the African diaspora that we don’t really see about in the mainstream media.
8:39BSo one of the things that we do as an organization is just to try to inform people about what’s going on in Africa, what’s going on in our parts of the diaspora, because if we don’t -- if we’re not aware of each other’s struggles, it’s very difficult to find that common basis to unite with each other.
8:53AYou know, talking about issues that we have in common, I noticed recently you posted about The death of 2 young Black men in Chicago. What don’t we understand about violence in Black communities?
9:10BAgain, that’s one of those universal issues that people of African descent seem to be dealing with wherever you find us. And one of the things that I don’t think we really understand, and this is a point I make often when we talk about Black-on-Black violence, is if you go to Chicago or any of the other communities where you find Black people killing each other, in large numbers, you can’t really find the factories or locations where the guns in those communities are being made. And it’s the same thing like if you go into Caribbean islands, most of, you know, the violence taking place there, the guns that we’re using to kill each other in those islands aren’t produced in the communities where people are killing themselves.
9:42BAnd even in Africa, when you look at the civil wars being fought in Africa, most of the people fighting in those conflicts, they’re not producing their own weapons. And I say this to make the point that, you know, as a people, we still were not in control of our own communities, we’re not in control of our own Economies, and one of the problems that happens when you don’t control your communities, you can’t control what comes into the community. So what we’re finding that’s happening in a lot of Black communities is guns, drugs, and other things that are destroying the community are being flooded into the community, and there’s no real effort to take charge of the community, to control the economy in our community.
10:14BI think that’s a big issue that we’re dealing with in terms of, you know, Black-on-Black violence. We just, we don’t have control over communities in the way that we should.
10:22AMm-hmm. Well, this is very important, what the, the information that we have to share that to help us understand our situations better. I, I really, you know, applaud you as a young man. You’re not even 30 years old yet. You’ve written 17 books. You’ve taken a stand in terms of the things you want to bring to your community. Are we going to better our community? And we, we like to give you that forum, this forum, to allow you to speak to our listeners. Because yeah, there are quite a few listeners there, you know, being informed and enlightened and empowered eventually to know that yes, there are things that we can do to, um, make our communities better financially, socially, and otherwise.
11:11AAnd I’m gonna take a little break now, and, uh, we’re gonna come back to continue. this very important discussion. Steel Band Vibes, It’s More Than Music radio show is brought to you by LC Warren Group, financial planners and wealth management professionals. Whether you’re saving for college, turning your Social Security benefit, or planning to enter retirement, LC Warren Group offers client-focused Investment services for retirement estate planning, portfolio management. Our office is located at 6767 North Wycombe Road in Melbourne and online at lcwarrengroup.com. We serve the global community. Call us at [number removed]. That’s [number removed]. The more we know, the more we grow. Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC.
12:27AOkay folks, we are in the Steve Van Vibe Spotlight with Dwayne Akio Wong Omowale. And we’re talking about African matters. Now, Dwayne, unlike numerous other religions, African religions, much like much of African culture, have been demonized for centuries. Why and how did you become interested in African religions, and what do you see as its value to African descendants?
12:58BUm, well, my interest in African religions began as a product of just studying African history and culture, but the interesting thing is I never actually specifically focused on African religion until recently. And what actually sparked my interest in doing so is I have 2 friends. One is a Muslim and the other one is a Christian, and they know a lot about African religion. So it sent a message to me, like, if I’m dealing with people that, you know, are very -- they’re not, you know, they don’t really particularly practice these African religions, you know, like I said, a Christian, a Muslim, but they still have the level of respect for these religions to understand it and to study it.
13:33BThat sent a message to me as an African descendant that, you know, maybe I should follow along with what they’re doing and take more of an interest in the African religion. I think it’s very important for us to understand it because it is a part of our culture, part of our cultural heritage. And the reason why I mentioned my friends being Christian and Muslim as well is because I think a lot of African descendants who don’t necessarily practice these religions because they have other religions they might practice don’t really see any value in African religions because, you know, after all, if you’re a Christian, what value would voodoo have for you?
14:03BBut I think we should, you know, study those religions regardless of what religion you may practice because what I’m starting to find is there’s a lot of wisdom and a lot of knowledge contained in those African religions. And part of the demonization is people tend to think of African religions as being evil, demonic, satanic, and all those kind of things. But like I said, there’s -- a lot of real wisdom and a lot of depth contained in those religions. I think anyone could benefit from by researching.
14:31AYou know, I know you were born and raised in Guyana until about 12 years old.
14:37BActually, yeah, 3.
14:37A3? Oh, you left really early.
14:40BVery early.
14:40AWell, so when would you say your interest in the African experience emerged and If you could tell us about some of your major influences over the years. You mentioned, of course, Malcolm X.
14:55BHe was a big influence. But my specific interest in Africa actually began as a senior in high school. And Malcolm X was, you know, a big influence in this because I read his autobiography, I was listening to his speeches, and he used to speak very often about Africa. And it occurred to me as a senior in high school that I’m an African descendant and I don’t know anything about Africa. And like I said, I was a senior in high school, so my entire high school experience up until this point was learning about European history, European civilizations. You know, it occurred to me, I never -- I didn’t know anything about Africa.
15:28BSo for me, my interest in Africa just began as a quest to find out more about Africa, and in doing so, finding out more about myself. And Malcolm X was a big influence in that. Another influence was a historian named Dr. John Henrik Clarke. I was watching one of his lectures on YouTube and he said something that really stood out to me. He said, African civilizations, we didn’t have jails, we didn’t even have a word in our language for jail. And that caught my interest because coming from the perspective I had of studying, only knowing about European civilizations, I was thinking, well, how could a civilization exist without jails?
16:03BWhat do you do with people who commit crimes? How do you handle that? And that’s what sparked my interest in really studying African civilization and understanding some of the humanity, you know, that we had as Africans in our, you know, civilizations before we were colonized and before the slave trade and all that. And it also goes back to what I was saying about African religion, is that we tend to think of African civilizations as being primitive and backwards and having these very negative connotations, but there’s, you know, a real level of depth and humanity and wisdom in our original civilizations that we’re not aware of because As I said, we don’t, you know, we’re not taught our history in schools, and many of us feel like Africa is so negative that we don’t even want to touch Africa.
16:43BLike, I’m here right now in the studio in a dashiki, and I know many people of African descent that would absolutely refuse to wear a dashiki or any form of African clothing.
16:52AThat’s real sad, but it shows we need to have that awareness, you know, and that appreciation. But with young people like you, I think it’s You’re going to be an influential leader. That’s what I see in you.
17:07BThank you.
17:07AA young man with the capacity to grow into a very influential leader. But you’re on a mission. What do you see that mission to be and how do you measure your progress?
17:19BWell, my mission is just to do whatever I can to assist the community and help others. And I mean, again, that goes back to the African spirit. I was talking about the African philosophy of Ubuntu, a word they have in South Africa, which means I am because we are. And what that means essentially is that my situation, I can’t be satisfied as a person until the people in my community and the people around me are satisfied. So my mission is just one of understanding that we exist as a community, as a communal people, so it’s our mission to assist each other and make sure that we’re all happy.
17:54BAnd because that’s my philosophy of how I approach activism and everything I do in my life, how I measure success in my mission is not based on what I can accomplish on my own, but what I can accomplish for other people. So one way I’d measure success is everything that you were saying in terms of how you see me as an influential leader. And I always say, I never refer to myself as a leader. I believe, like, if people see that leadership quality in me, it’s the community’s place to confer leadership on me. So essentially what I’m saying is how I judge success for my mission is just based on what other people see from my efforts.
18:35ABut with that said, sometimes that journey is towards those goals, you know, of informing our community, letting them know, you know, the things that you know, sharing that information and education. It seems sometimes the challenges are insurmountable. You get discouraged.
18:58BVery much so.
18:58AThat, that’s what I’m saying. We get discouraged. Where do you go for what you may need to continue on that path or on that mission? Where do you go? How do you get that? Because listen, it’s not an easy road. You gotta admit that. You know, it’s not paved with whatever. There are lots of obstacles in the way, and the leaders before you, they can attest to that. So you know to expect them as you go along. But what, what do you do? How do you handle those obstacles that come along?
19:29BWell, I mean, the first thing I will say is anything that you do in life, if you’ve never reached a point where you feel like giving up, then you probably haven’t worked very hard to accomplish what you’re doing. So I think, you know, part of working hard with anything is, yeah, at some point you’re going to feel discouraged, you’re going to feel like what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s impossible. But I think one of the ways that I personally handle it is I understand that sometimes you just need to step back and reassess the situation. Because when you’re working really hard for a goal, sometimes you get like a tunnel vision where you can only see that goal you’re working for.
20:00BAnd, um, yeah, I mentioned earlier, going to law school wasn’t even something that I had originally planned when I was in high school. I wanted to be a professional athlete. And I just realized along the journey, I mean, that’s just something that I worked very hard at in high school, that was my dream. And I realized along the journey that at some point I stepped back from that and realized, well, as much as I want to be a professional athlete, I could accomplish more and give back more pursuing other endeavors. And I became an author, an activist, and doing other things that I hadn’t originally planned to do.
20:29BSo I think the other thing that we need to realize is sometimes you might really want to accomplish a goal, But that goal might not necessarily be where your life mission is supposed to be. So sometimes you just need to step back, reassess the situation, and realize it’s okay to sometimes walk away from something to pursue another endeavor. So I wouldn’t say give up, but at some point it’s okay to walk away because what you’re trying to accomplish might not necessarily be where your life is meant to go.
20:59AThis is true. Well, you’re so wise, so young and so wise, but guess what? We’re almost out of time. That’s why we have you here monthly, to keep us abreast of African matters. Um, is there anything you want to tell our listeners before we go?
21:15BI just want to reiterate that message about, um, you know, like I said, it’s okay to feel discouraged, to feel like giving up. That’s a part of the process. And, you know, like I said, sometimes it’s okay to just take a step back, reassess the situation, and Like I said, not necessarily give up, but redirect your energies into something that might be more productive for you and for your community in the long run.
21:36AOkay, okay, so before we go, you know, we have to touch on the pan thing a little bit. In Caribbean communities in London, New York, in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and other places, by and large, the steel pan art form is dominated by African descendants, and really it’s a struggle for survival. it’s the steel band in these communities struggle for survival. Can you point to any parallels in other African musical art forms that may have had similar experience, and what in general may account for this, and how can these art forms rise above those challenges?
22:15BI mean, I think especially in the diaspora, every art form that we’ve produced as a people has experienced the same challenges and actually brought, um, This quote here by Sir Arthur Lewis, who’s a Saint Lucian economist, a very world-renowned economist, and he’s from Saint Lucia. What he says is that a false sense of nationalism has persuaded Caribbean people to think of steel band as being a significant contribution to the world’s music heritage. So this is, like I said, a world-renowned economist from the Caribbean, and he’s looking down on the steel band as something being worthless and It’s only people that have a false sense of nationalism that believe this is a significant contribution to music. So what I’m noticing is a lot of people of African descent, when they achieve a certain status, whether it be economic, academic, or whatever the case may be, they tend to try to distance themselves from --
23:07AThe folk culture.
23:08BYeah, from the folk culture. And I mean, I know the steel pan definitely has had the struggle. It’s always been looked upon traditionally as something low-class. If you’re middle or upper class, you don’t associate with steel pan or calypso or those kind of things. And it’s been a struggle. I’m noticing it’s changing now, but in the early days, it used to be you didn’t associate with those things. And it’s been like that for many other art forms throughout the African diaspora. Anything that came from the masses was always associated as being backwards, as primitive. African, we don’t associate with that. We try to associate more with European culture because we’re educated to think that the standard is always a European or always a foreign standard. We never look at ourselves first and foremost. We never look at our history, our culture, and what, you know, the contributions that we’ve made as a people. And I have experience with this because, you know, my experience in school, they teach us about Mozart and all the classical, you know, European musicians. So I graduated school thinking that Europeans are the ones that made significant contributions to music, I never thought of African people as making significant contributions to music.
24:13AWell, we’re gonna have to look at ourselves a little more deeply. Listen, it’s such a pleasure having you here. We’re gonna have you back next month, uh, to keep us abreast of African matters. Thank you so much, Dwayne.
24:27BThank you for having me.
24:28AOh, you’re quite welcome. Well, folks, that was Dwayne Akiowong Omowale. He’s our monthly interviewer and sometimes guest. We always are enlightened by what he has to share with us. All right, and what’s the last word? It comes from Lupita Nyong’o backstage at the 2014 Oscars after winning Best Supporting Actress. And this is what she says, I quote, what I’ve learned from myself is that I don’t have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough. End quote. Taking us home is one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most innovative steel orchestras, Birdsong, doing a Bean Griffith composition, Trini Know How, from the album Sweet Pan Sweet Pan on the Sanche label. And until next time, let your brilliance shine. Stay strong, stay focused.
25:27BBe encouraged.
25:28ABe encouraged. Have a safe, enjoyable weekend. May God bless you all.
