THE BLACK AGES
Written by: Victor E. Moseley
Email: vemoseley@landcause.com
Blue Sky: vemoseley17.bsky.social
Instagram: vemo607
Oftentimes it takes contemplating how Black folks lives have been defined for us throughout all times by people who were not Black. This truth cannot be denied no more than I can change the color of my skin nor allow myself to be categorized and lessened. Therefore, I must take this journey of discovery as all my valiant and resilient ancestors have sojourned in a world where false judgments were presented as the standard of righteousness. Righteousness added to humility with the grace of God may be the answer.
VOLUME 11: ‘Blackbirding’
Do you know what ‘kanaka’ means? It’s a word in Hawaiian that means ‘person’ or ‘man’. I know you didn’t stop to ‘define’ the topic of this digital post of the Black Ages, so I will help you with that. If you’ve had any sort of schooling that you paid due attention to instruction the word ‘black’ should have given you an idea of the compound meaning of the word. Blackbirding is the enslavement of people against their will by force and or deception to work on sugar and or cotton plantations, or cattle stations in Queensland, Australia.
Now imagine for a moment that the British Government sought to deport all kanakas. The Australian Government passed a law in 1901 to outlaw the practice of Blackbirding which now led the British to not want kanakas in Australia anymore. Positive and fair right? I’m not going to get into the fierce and natural belief that ‘land’ is spiritually connected to many indigenous cultures. Research Hawaiian land disputes through the years.
ProPublica has a wealth of reporting on the subject that deals with Hawaii land rights, and fights I will add.
South Pacific Islanders probably don’t have the megaphone, prominent advocates, as Black Americans have speaking up for their rights. Know this that the peoples of Fiji and the Samoan Islands were captured and enslaved as well for Queensland, Australia’s various labor needs. Unpaid labor jobs I should say to describe what was actually happening. What is the significance of the practice of ‘slavery’ starting and being spread around the world? Australia is nearly 6,500 miles from the Continent of Africa.
Two continents couldn’t have mimicked the practice of slavery, ‘Blackbirding’, being so far apart and only able to be connected through the High Seas at the time. Could it?
Hawaiians, the people of Fiji and the Samoan Islands had to return to their own lands after Queensland, Australia finished draining all their good years of life and physical labor. Some of these people, Hawaiians, returned to a land that now they had to fight America, a new country, for a piece of their own ancestral homeland. Do you now understand why having a place to connect you to your ancestors shows respect for where you came from?
Are you finally understanding why people can’t just accept injustice? Do you know why the memory of that injustice is passed down through ‘The Black Ages’? Stealing from somebody is still bad. Stealing from a race of people, Black People, is still a mortal Sin!
Black people are a fiercely resilient people! Hawaiians and South Pacific Islanders can make that claim as well by that same standard. The standard that our ancestors were robbed. Seeking justice for your ‘blood’ is directly in line with God’s law. When others, other races, people or cultures think Black people, as well as Hawaiians, South Pacific Islanders should just let it go. We can’t.
By the way, money shouldn’t talk so loud in Hawaii. Even when you have enough money to buy 2300 acres of sacred Hawaii land. Again. Money is not reality! Blood is reality! That precious blood that connects members of a family to the memory of their past. Like Jesus said right? Correction. Like Jesus spilled for us right? Good Lord. We know Black people have spilled plenty of blood for each other as well.
That’s why if you don’t know the history of your people; you’re doomed to always disgrace, demean, disparage and dishonor their memory.
I will always remember where I came from. I am a Black man, and I know where the blood that runs in my veins was given to me!
Be well.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica edition was 2007. Micropaedia book 2 page 260 under the paragraph blackbirding.


