I Know Who I Am
By Vasco R. A. Pires

A gentle English lady told me she was afraid of me. With surprise and dismay, I asked her why she thought this way.

“You know who you are.” She explained. I replied. “Well thank you I am so glad you think so. However, tell me why would you be afraid of me, for knowing who, I am.”

She explained that in her culture she had to play a role and speak a certain way to be accepted. “You however, do not fit the role that I understand you aught to play,” she seemed to imply.

Wow! This was a very profound revelation to me. That this lady born into a majority society of privilege and power would be afraid of me, a person of color without privilege or power, for the sole reason that I knew who I was.

Yes, I do know who I am. I know what I want to do and where I want to go. I am, neither Black nor White, I am a human being put on Earth for a reason. That reason is to do no harm and be useful to others and myself. I may seem unique, but I am not the only one. Anyone who understands the reality of their life, appreciates their cultural roots and respects the unique qualities of others can be like me.

Who am I? Where am I going? Yes, I have seen through the mind games, the historic "scams." Yes, I do know who I am. Knowledge of my history has set me free, I can be me. The family names of Rodrigues, Pires and Warner trace back to the History of Africa, India, early America, Portugal and Spain, included are: Slaves, Coal Miners, Cranberry, Tobacco and Strawberry pickers as well as, Presidents, Doctors, Lawyers, Educators, as well as a Senator or two, Scientist and successful Merchants too. Yes, I know who I am. I do not give a damn what you think of me. For hundreds of years I have been kept in the dark. I have struggled and fought to get my freedom and identity back. I can go wherever I choose to go.

With dignity and pride I have played by the rules. And racist fools, will never again define my identity. I know who I am. What you see is but a fraction of me. Take the time to take a closer look. Get to know my reality, and me, and then you will understand how much we have in common, underneath our skin.

© 2006, Vasco R. A. Pires, All Rights Reserved

Two thumbs up to Vasco Pires!!!

Thank you Vasco,we applaud you.

I know who Iam.

I have your book by the way and I think that every CV should have a copy. It should be a required reading for all Caboverdean students.
How do we purchase your book (A Fraction Of Me)?

I am that I am
A Fraction of all humanity.

Viva povo Cabo Verde

Morabeza Sempre

We still have a long way to go when it comes to racial understanding and tolerance.
There's still a lot of ignorant people out there and unfortunately many of them hold powerful, leading and deciding positions. We, the underdogs, need to find intellegent ways to overcome this heavy burden.
One of them is to talk freely about racial issues in order to find ways to put it aside.

This idea of not being Black or White makes me uneasy because
it says I'm NOT but it does not say who I AM. Cape Verdeans
are hung up on this theory that we are not either this or that.
So who are we? Being human is not enough for a society and a
world that is centered on race, ethnicity and gender.

Why this obsession with saying what we are NOT? How about
saying who WE ARE? This ambiguity makes Cape Verdeans sound
like they have no idea who they are. Where are we geographically?
What is the context of our history and struggle?? What does our
heritage tell us that we are? What is the sum of all that??

In knowing one’s self you must have a good sense of your history but one must also have a good sense of world history as well. That way you can build enough self-esteem & motivation to work towards unlocking the genius which is inside every single individual.
With that in mind it always baffled me why so called white people would fear blacks, where is this fear come from. Why would the oppressor fear the oppressed, and my belief is that something really big was stolen from the African continent & from the so called black people. What I’m talking about is they’ve tried to white out and rewrite history, but it always leaves clues. To understand this we need to put it in Pre-Colonialism & Post-Colonialism.
In pre-colonialism civilizations conquered each other mostly for economical reason, but cultures, history, religion practices most of the time of the ones conquered continued while adapting somewhat the cultures or religion of their conqueror. However when conquering other empires, nations or civilization under the concept of colonialism happened humans reached the lowest possible level.
Colonialism, almost made Native Americans in both North & South America extinct, set the stage of turmoil which the entire continent of Africa, some part of Asia, Middle East & the Pacific nations are still in struggle under, while Western Europe flourished.
For any minority to rule it needs to divide & conquer the mass & use tremendous amount of propaganda & lies to dumb the mass.

With this introduction let me share some HISTORICAL FACTS that may inspire you the reader with some pride that if you are from the African origin then you have a long and incredible history. Knowing this it should inspire you to have the INSIGHT.

For instance Art, Science, Agriculture, Mathematics, Engineering, politics, religion were all curriculums originated and developed in different parts of Africa. Egypt is the only civilization to have science named after it. Who do you think taught the Greeks who are considered the forefathers of western society? In fact, many of the innovations & contributions credited to the Greeks were used by Africans thousands of years before.

IMHOTEP-was the father of medice as we know it and designer of one of the ancient pyramids considered by many as the first recorded scientist. Ahmes- credited of being the first author of mathematics textbook.

I was surprised to find out that according to the US Treasury Dept. 450 out 650 workers who built both the white house & the capital building were African slaves.
St. Augustine was African, 3 popes were African & even Roman Empire had an African emperor Septimus Severus. Ever noticed why every picture of Beethoven appears in a dark background, well he was a mulatto often referred as black Spaniard because his father was a Moor. Even in Russia, whose most proclaimed writer of all time Aleksandr Seregeyevisch Pushkin publicly talked about his African decent due to his grand father going to Russia as a slave.

One of the most interesting stories I have come across is one of Philip Emeagwali a Nigerian math genius who in 1989 went public of developing the world supercomputer which could do 3.1 billion calculations in 1 second. This is just amazing because prior to him the world supercomputer was designed to measure or time only millions of calculation per second. His work helped spawned the internet as we know it. In 1989 he won Gordon Bell Prize dubbed the Nobel Prize of Supercomputing. The amazing thing about this he is the first & only individual to have won this, only teams of mathematicians or companies have won this most prestigious award. Yet it took me 2 hours of research to find out about him.

In closing I’m not suggesting that any race is better than other all I’m saying is that Knowledge is a set of information & truth with principles acquired by humans over thousands of years. However we must realize that the pioneers of science & people with the longest history resided in the African continent which is also naturally the richest most diverse continent on this planet. This is a FACT .

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I tihnk that is what missing from our understanding
of who we are. Otherwise we would not be ashamed or
afraid of ackowledging our heritage.

vasco Pires,

can I give you my interpretation of what the white woman told you about the fear and that you know who you are?

For me the interpretation is, although there is all this social pressure in america for cape-verdeans to identify with blacks, the cape-verdeans stand up and claim their mixed portuguese origins. This is scary for white americans who are not used to see blacks contradicting them. She thinks that you know who you are because you (and cv in general), don't let the others define our identity, we are the one who explain to the others who we are, which is very uncommon for blacks who generally don't know from were they come from. this is true also for white-americans who don't know anymore from were they come from in europe or england.

kiko,

I think you are a lier. You are confused about africa and what is called africans. As I wrote in another forum, "you talk about africa as a block. again it is a lie. There is 4 different kind of civilisations in africa, the blacks-negroid sub-saharians, the arabo berbers in north africa, the indo-creole islands in the east of south africa, the ibero-islands in the north of africa (cape-verde is part of the ibero-islands).
Where I totally disagree with you, is when you mix arabo-berbers civilisation and black-negroid civilisations. The arabo-berbers are a white people, and if they are not white, then the greeks, the portuguese, the spanish or italians are not white too.
The egyptians and their king imothep were arabo-berbers and not negro-africans. The a large number of negro-africans (8 million) were brougth to north-africa as slaves and this phenomenon is not different from the european colonialism. These are the FACTS that you forget in your analysis, I suppose you do it in purpose.

also concerning saint augustine, saint augustine was not black, he was a berber born in argelia in north-africa, he was as white as any portuguese or greek.

I would have to agree with the staments made about this character, st_antao. He's an incredibly dim-witted and cretinous person. He's been posting at cvmusicworld forum for years. You all should dismiss him for the moron that he is.

yes, I am here to block all this message from north-americans that don't know what you are talking about most of the time.

just try to find a fact that is not true in my posts...you will not. I know much more things than you, I have met trough my life arabo-berber people from algeria, maroco, tunisia, lybia. I have meet negro africans from mali, senegal, congo, zaire, togo, cameroon, ivory cost, nigerians. I know what I am talking about.

I know much more than you

Move on buddy,

You got stuck on your own circular sick thought, Santo antao. Your desperate need to differentiate between negroes, barber, white, or else is based on your own sick ego needs to claim white superiority.

You can't be the only non liar here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get over it, we will forgive you. we are your friends

St_Antao, I hope you are not speaking in the name of all people from the island of Santo Antao. You are embarassing all of us here.

Favor, pará kes disparot grinha ci.

sao_antao2,

you are not from santo-antao, how could you be from santo-antao and write it sao-antao...imposteur.

don't worry I will be back again and again, I will not let the afro-centrist lies spread without an answer, I am here for that

guest,

untill now, I didn't express no one of my ideas. I have been chasing lies that the afro-centrists are spreading on this site, I have been exposing only facts and not my opinions, my opinions will come soon. But my priority is to stop the lies of the afro-centrist who come in this site and untill now didn't have no counterweigth, I am here to be their counteirweigth. I will live the day they will stop their lies.

Sinta n'ton.

You, first need to adjust your language to appropriate way to communicate. You have been harassing people that peacefully come to this forum to exchange opinions, calling them offensive names, which, is clearly violating the code of conduct of this forum.

You have right to your opinion, but if you want to share it, you will have to go by the rules of (this forum) democracy and decency. We have penalty for breaking the rules. This is an educational ground, not exactly a battlefield.

Thank you !

bimbirim

No, Mr Pires, in fact you don't know who you are! You think you are who you think you are, because you belongs to a "great" family. The family of President, senator, academic and so on...

In contrary, I know who I am, 'cause I'm. This is not a question of family or title, or graduation! This is a matter of being! I am a man! I am what I am: an individual being! In your point of view, a human being is not, but something else: doctor or president.

You have to choose between white or black, but you don't want, because you know you aren't white, but you don't to admit your condition of black people. That's why you prefer to be called a capeverdean. You are something between anything; neither white, even less a black.

I know what I am, because I have a personnality, because I have no complex of inferiority, because, I can speak with a black man or a white man, without thinking in their colour of skin! That's my philosophy, my way of life!

Greetings:


First & foremost josé bouquinhas you are clueless and your comment is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Secondly, Stantao you are pathetic to say the least and your logic is filled with fallacies.

In regards to my comment about Africa & history is not about the shade of your one’s skin. Africa is the second largest continent and it is a diverse place and I never once claimed that all people who share this continent are homogeneous.

However, as far as history is concerned in general it is the victors who record what we study and consume as knowledge today, which means that it’s their bias interpretation of past events. However, individuals capable of astute critical thinking will always see between the lies and acquire the insight of past occurrences.

With that in mind in regards to you so called Stantao’s comment, I’m not suggesting that all African looks like or speak the same language as say a Nigerian from Lagos.
Instead, I am pointing out that African history as we know it today through academia has been painted with a broad brush from the Western European dominant point of view and they have tried to substitute merit with skin color; however its one thing to discredit, but to change Africans physical appearance is going too far. But this is nothing new; civilizations always depicted culture in their own image even if it was an adopted culture, religion or people. That is why Michelangelo and other well known Western artists always depicted early Christians in his own contemporary Italian image hence not a true historical interpretation but work of art none the less.

In closing, how relevant do you think it would be if say 300 years from now Michael Jordan is depicted as a David Beckman look a like or Bruce Lee is depicted as a Dennis Rodman look a like.

The historic image is very important to the current situation and my argument is precisely that, not whether one’s skin color makes an individual superior to another which is a stupid argument in my opinion.

Kiko,

you don't get my point. I said that nort-afric(arabo-berbers) and sub-saharan africa (negroids) are not part of the same civilisation. It is irrelevant with the langage talked in nigeria because from one sub-saharian country to the other they don't talk the same language.

My point is that north-africans and sub-saharans are two different civilisation and are also different physically. So no, the egyptians and saint-augustine(an algerians berber) were not blacks. They were mediteraneans and as much white as a portuguese or a greek. I lived almost 30 years in paris in the same area than north-africans and sub-saharan africans, and never heard one of them telling that they were of the same race. They see themselves as two different races.

North african arabs partly colonised sub-saharan africa and were buying their slaves there. They introduced in sub-saharian africa their religion (islam), their language (arabic), their names (muhamad, salim, nasser, ali, youssouf). That's why for someone living in north-america and sees africa from very far thinks that the arabo-berbers and the negroid sub-saharian are the same racial group, it is a wrong assumption.

Greetings:


St_antao, I get your point & your bias as well, I am also quite aware of the African history AD with the strong Greek Roman influence. I am aware of the North African diverse culture and history & the mixing of civilizations.

However, racism based on skin color was and for most part is a Western European concept which has been brainwashed for centuries.
You are falling to understand that human history & African history is an old history which pre exist 2000 years by millenniums and in this period Africans for most part of the continent were black people, all one needs to do is look at painting, and archeological artifacts to see that the Kemet also known as Egyptians arguably the greatest human civilization were BLACK PEOPLE.

Even in time of the biblical characters they were all black, there was no such thing as the Middle East which is a terminology created by Western Europeans to make a distinction between Africa the continent and this stretch of land where the cradle of civilization was started such as the Mesopotamian region today’s IRAG.

In antiquity, the location where we see the lighter shade people are in the Caucus mountain region, throughout the Stan countries leading towards today’s IRAN, some part Asia & the entire Europe continent.

Nevertheless, many great conquers & empires have come & gone and they have all left their influence at some level. As far as African history is concerned, the contest between Christianity & Islam is a recent one less than 1600 years. In this period there were great migration, exodus, & ethnic cleanse of people not to mention the savagery of destroying entire cities included records etc.

However, before the Greeks & later Rome’s dominance, today’s middle east with the exception to today’s IRAN & the Stan countries were settled and ruled by black people and the proof is recorded on the archeological discoveries dated to that appropriate time.

With that said one should also expand his or her mind to realize that in today’s Asian countries such as Russia, India, China, Japan & the American continents existed great civilizations which has influenced & contributed to human development in a very significant way. In fact, the greatest land mass empire of all time was the Mongols which stretched from the Koreans to today’s Hungary.

With this in mind I will rest my case.

Yes,

Gengis Kahm had the greteast empire on earth, he even managed to conquer japan...nobody did it before, nobody did it after.

I don't agree with you on the greek and roman influence in north-africa. It is rather the oposite, it is italy and spain that have been invaded a racially mixed with the north-african-arabs from 800 to 1500. North-africa didn't receive population influx from italy or greece (for sure the cultural influence was strong). North africa has allways been inhabited by the berbers, and after 800 the arabs invaded north africa and racially mixed with the locals.

I would be ready to beleive in your black north africa if you can explain to me how the negroid population did to move from north africa to sub-saharian africa. And more amazing is the lack of negroid culture in north-africans. I lived for almost 30 years alongside north-africans and sub-saharian africans, and never heard one of them telling that they were the same race. I even saw in some cases reciprocal racism. I know what I am talking about as I talk from my experience.

A great page about the history of the African people:

THE GLOBAL AFRICAN PRESENCE-http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html

Greetings:

It is true that a large sect of North Africans today identify themselves as Berbers from Morocco to Libya and even Egypt and a large percentage of them are of lighter skin which can even be mistake for pure European.

But this is a more recent phenomenon maybe several centuries in which large numbers of Europeans began settling in these regions and most of them assimilating to these cultures and adopting them as their own for several generations.

Otherwise, people prior to them even in the pinnacle of the Roman Empire were BLACK PEOPLE, meaning if you saw one today you could say hey there goes a black man or woman and this is based on the discovered artifacts from that particular time.

The Egyptians were black just like people from Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Angola for the most part are black. It doesn’t mean they are all the same but the shade of their skin is black. Even the Egyptians made distinctions on the shades of their neighbors such as the Syrian, Nubian, & Libyan (who lived west of the Nile which were depicted as lighter toned by the Egyptians) Now that does not mean they were white, its just that the Egyptians saw the Nubians as draker than them & the Libyans (Lebu) lighter but the group they saw as white were Asyrian from Stan countries leading towards today's Turkey & Syria.

A better example is to say, South Africans are white, when we know that a smaller percentage of them would apply for a couple of centuries at best, but they are still South African because they have been there for several generations.

Another example would be suggesting that Mexicans were always Catholics? The answer is NO, it was a religion which was brutally imposed on them until they finally adopted it & embraced as their own and that is why Mexico is one of the largest Catholic countries today.

In closing, check your facts Genghis Kahn never conquered Japan, it was his grandson Kublei although did try I beleive 3X but never ended up conquering Japan, due to the Mongols suffered great loss when a Typhoon sturck their great fleet which was referred to as Kamikaze or the divine wind. If that did not happen they would have conquered Japan due to their overwhelming numbers and supperior weapons and military assembly. But that is a topic on its own.

kiko,

I think a lot of people here are disrespectfull for the north-africans, their message sounds like "The north africans don't know who they are...myself, because I live in north-america I know better than them who they are and I will teach them"

The native population of north-africa is the berbers, the berbers population lives in marroco, algeria, tunisia, lybia and egypt. The arabs colonised north-africa after 800. the arabs brougth 8 million sub-saharian slaves to their empire and for example nowadays, there is a sizeable sub-saharan community in tunesia around 10% of the population.
For sure north-africans are a mix of berbers-arabs and blacks... but the fact is that it is the arab identity and racial features that dominates in north-africa.

Concerning your last point, it is sure that it is possible that north-africa was inhabited by blacks only and that they migrated to the south for an unknown reason. But, it is also possible that england was inhabited by blacks who moved to the south for an unknown reason. As far as there is no proof of a negroid civilisation in egypt or marroco it is just a probability.

St_Antao,

I’m not disputing the Berber identity in North Africa, and the fact that they may look different from people of the Sub Saharah from Mali down to Nigeria.

Anyone with some knowledge of African civilizations would understand that people in the southern part of Africa look different from those from the east, west & North. In fact this would apply to all the continents.

Also, keep in mind that the term Berbers come from Greek’s description of people in the North Africa as barbarians possibly descendants of Lebus and Numidians who lived west of the Nile and some of the Berbers may be associated with the Moors which most of them originated from today Mauritania.

The Greeks & Romans literally labeled all these different tribes as Berbers and it stuck.
Even today if one travels through the Sahara countries from Mali, Mauritania, Morocco Algeria, Tunisia, Libya etc, you will see that the very traditional nomadic people who still practice their ancient traditional ways are for the most part dark skinned people.

In the cities, you will find the lighter sometimes even white people there, and I’m not suggesting that they are not Berbers or African which they are. What I’m saying is that historically even going back to 800 Berbers were not White people who lived in North Africa & all the blacks lived bellow the Sahara.

There were always constant trades in North Africa and its possible that southern Europeans settled there and after Rome finally conquered Carthage in the 3rd Punic War, they ruled north Africa for centuries and even after the fragmentation of Rome different so called Germanic barbarian tribes migrated as far as North Africa & later with the rise of Western Europe Monarchy, Europeans migrated to north African in large numbers.

This is no different from any other place on earth, look at Mexico for instant; would you say that the white people from there were the original descendants from native tribes such as the Aztecs? The answer is NO, they are descendants of Western Europeans who conquered and migrated there, nevertheless some have been there for many generations and they are and should be considered Mexican, whether its native looking or European. This also applies to North Africa and many other regions on earth and I hope you understand my point.

In closing, arguing skin color is STUPID because we all know that it’s irrelevant to human advancement, however it’s also a strategy which has been effectively used mostly by Europeans in conquering other people. As far as human history is concerned this concept of inferiority or superiority through skin color was implemented less than 600 years ago.
I think it’s about time for us to look for another psychological strategy to kill & conquer each other. Oh, I think we did, RELIGION who has the better GOD.

Kiko,

the problem with all the things you wrote above about north-africans (arab-berbers) and sub-saharian africans (blacks) is that it is theoritical.

I lived almost 30 years surrounded of north-africans and sub-saharians and I know from experience that they don't share the same race, they perceive each other as two difference racial groups and the color of skin is irrelevant on that. Blacks and arabs are two different racial groups.

Greeting:

Basically, I have given you the historical explanation.
Now why is it so hard for you to acknowledge that throught history, Africans of dark skin ruled over great civilizations and accomplished great things?

You can clearly see from all the Pyramids and Egyptian artifacts that they were BLACK PEOPLE. Even the Romans left writings describing their rival people of North African as black, even the word moor meant black to many Europeans.

Why do you perceive that there was a point of time that people from Saudi Arabia peninsula populated the entire North Africa? Instead what they did were influence natives through Islamic religion mostly through peaceful means such as trading goods.

Where caravans would transport goods through the desert up to the Mediterranean. In fact at that time SALT was the most precious commodity. Although slavery later became an important trade before Western Europe got involved.

Now scientifically think if the North Africa & the Sahara Desert region are suitable for white people especially at that time. Common sense would tell you that the only realistic and suitable location would be right on the Mediterranean coast, I mean right on the beach under a shade or inside a home covered head to toes, instead of horses later camels through the deserts trading & being nomads.

The Sahara region is the hottest region on earth; you can get skin cancer in a heart beat if your skin lacks suitable pigmentation, and if you don’t you eventual become so tanned that you would eventually turn black.

However, it is sad to see the state which Africa is in to day, it’s disgraceful in every sense of the word, nevertheless this does not justify robbing its glorious history for the most part .