Latest / DA CREW Podcast / 8/3/25-QUEEN MOTHER DR.CHEN.| HOST OF AST SPEAKS |LIVE ON DA CREW PODCAST

Transcript

8/3/25-QUEEN MOTHER DR.CHEN.| HOST OF AST SPEAKS |LIVE ON DA CREW PODCAST · DA CREW Podcast

0:24
Speaker 1: And the greetings you are listening to another live broadcast
0:30
Speaker 1: if I speaks building a new legacy, And today we
0:36
Speaker 1: are a bit delayed, just with some technological issues on
0:41
Speaker 1: this side, just navigating bringing in our guest as joining
0:48
Speaker 1: us from Sierra Leone, West Africa on this auspicious day
0:53
Speaker 1: of August third, which represents the birth date of the
0:59
Speaker 1: Honorable Reverend Doctor Edward Wilmot Blyden, a stalwarth of Pan Africanism,
1:07
Speaker 1: of African fundamentalism, of all things, supporting African liberation, sovereignty,
1:15
Speaker 1: reparatory justice before it was called reparatory justice, reparations before
1:20
Speaker 1: it was called reparations, and truly bringing truth as power
1:25
Speaker 1: for African black people globally, specifically with groundings in the
1:32
Speaker 1: Isle of Saint Thomas when it was the Danish West
1:35
Speaker 1: Indies which is now the Version Islands of the United States,
1:38
Speaker 1: and taking his message through the church, through community organizing
1:45
Speaker 1: and much much more, speaking more than sixteen languages fluently,
1:52
Speaker 1: also traversing in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Egypt and many other places.
1:59
Speaker 1: And who is joining us tonight audio, just because we've
2:03
Speaker 1: been having some technological issues is none other than his
2:10
Speaker 1: illustrious Great granddaughter I Blighten, greeting Sister Blighten, how are.
2:18
Speaker 2: You greeting to you? Thank you for having me.
2:23
Speaker 1: It's a join of privilege. Please share with our audience
2:26
Speaker 1: because we know that our time has been somewhat shortened,
2:31
Speaker 1: and we will work out some of the technological issues
2:34
Speaker 1: in the future so that they can see you, because
2:37
Speaker 1: it's important for persons to see you as well as
2:39
Speaker 1: hearing you. But for tonight's podcast, we would love for
2:42
Speaker 1: you to share a bit about your illustrious great grandfather,
2:46
Speaker 1: some highlights that you would like us to be aware of,
2:50
Speaker 1: and then we'll go into some other areas that are
2:53
Speaker 1: pivotal to some of the future activities coming forth.
2:59
Speaker 2: So please share well.
3:02
Speaker 3: My great grandfather, Edward Rummer Bleden, was born in the
3:06
Speaker 3: Virgin Islands in Charlotte Demley, and his mother is actually
3:11
Speaker 3: the fundamental person to do with his early you know, literacy,
3:17
Speaker 3: whatever literacy he had was still his mother who taught
3:20
Speaker 3: him how to be using the Bible. At eighteen he
3:23
Speaker 3: went actually seventeen and a half, he was taken to the.
3:27
Speaker 4: United States to go and attend the Rutgers Theological Seminary,
3:31
Speaker 4: but he was denied entrance on the basis of the
3:34
Speaker 4: fact that other African American students that had gone they had.
3:39
Speaker 2: Not done well, so he was denied entrance.
3:42
Speaker 4: So he was then given passage to go through the
3:46
Speaker 4: American Colonization Society and the New York Presbyterian Society passage
3:51
Speaker 4: to travel to Liberia, which had just become a republic.
3:57
Speaker 2: And the reason why.
3:58
Speaker 4: It was because they were were creating a school that
4:02
Speaker 4: they would name the Alexander High School, which was named
4:06
Speaker 4: after the founder of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton.
4:13
Speaker 4: And so Blindin ends up once the school gets started,
4:16
Speaker 4: which was a year or more.
4:19
Speaker 2: So that when he gets there he is this young
4:22
Speaker 2: man of eighteen. He has really nowhere to go.
4:25
Speaker 4: But he ends up working in one of the manufacturer's
4:29
Speaker 4: houses until that one disappears, and then he tutors in
4:33
Speaker 4: the Baptist church. He does a lot of small jobs.
4:35
Speaker 4: He writes for the newspaper. He really get finds opportunities quickly.
4:39
Speaker 4: And then he was advised by one of his you know,
4:44
Speaker 4: one of the people in factfully who brought.
4:47
Speaker 2: Them him there.
4:48
Speaker 4: He says, well, you know, I'm all alone here and
4:50
Speaker 4: I don't have a supporter or anything.
4:52
Speaker 3: You know.
4:53
Speaker 4: One of mine is it says, every opportunity that you had,
4:56
Speaker 4: you should seize because you don't know whether that opportunity
5:01
Speaker 4: wants to take you to where you're going to go.
5:04
Speaker 4: And so he follows this man's advice. He literally seizes
5:07
Speaker 4: every opportunity that comes his way, and he begins to
5:11
Speaker 4: live in Liberia excellent. He does two years of high
5:15
Speaker 4: school at the Alexander High School. He graduates, and he
5:21
Speaker 4: then becomes the headmaster of the school. He has a
5:25
Speaker 4: seven students and he's teaching them languages because he's.
5:29
Speaker 2: Taught himself how to read.
5:31
Speaker 5: He do.
5:32
Speaker 2: He's taught himself.
5:33
Speaker 4: Latin, and he's taught himself to read because he likes
5:36
Speaker 4: the classics, and he learns. He teaches himself, and so
5:42
Speaker 4: that's what he teaches these young boys, along with religious
5:45
Speaker 4: studies in the Alexander High School. Then comes that he
5:50
Speaker 4: has to take the Divinity exam to the Presbyterian Church, because.
5:54
Speaker 2: That's why he's gone there.
5:56
Speaker 4: He passes, he's ordained in eighteen fifty eight and he
6:00
Speaker 4: begins to preach in what is today called the First
6:05
Speaker 4: Presbyterian Church of Monovia.
6:08
Speaker 2: But at that time, it.
6:09
Speaker 4: Was known as the first Cumberland church Presbyterian church come
6:14
Speaker 4: down to lie in Maryland. And what's so interesting about
6:18
Speaker 4: it is when you go to this church, you will
6:21
Speaker 4: see his.
6:21
Speaker 2: Name on the blacks on the wall.
6:24
Speaker 4: I was fortunate when I went to Liberia finally to
6:27
Speaker 4: go discover, you know, how did this man live there?
6:31
Speaker 2: You know how did they live in my hea? Because gone?
6:34
Speaker 4: And I wanted to also see what it would be
6:36
Speaker 4: like to work with a female president. When I go
6:39
Speaker 4: to the church and the pulpit where he used to
6:42
Speaker 4: preach was still there.
6:44
Speaker 2: The chair he.
6:45
Speaker 4: Said, on this, so I sat on it, and then
6:49
Speaker 4: I went and looked at the plat and I took pictures.
6:52
Speaker 2: And the guy said, well.
6:54
Speaker 4: You are our mother now, because he's not here. You're
6:57
Speaker 4: going to be the mother of this church. I said, okay,
7:00
Speaker 4: but to sit in my great grandfather's chair, the roe
7:03
Speaker 4: he sat it as the elder.
7:04
Speaker 2: It was a very exciting moment.
7:05
Speaker 4: I thought, oh, for heaven's sakes, Well, they didn't like
7:09
Speaker 4: the pulpit because it was old.
7:10
Speaker 2: They said, so do you know they tore that pulpit down.
7:13
Speaker 2: They did not keep it. Something so valuable.
7:16
Speaker 4: I kept telling them look, just keep it as a museum,
7:19
Speaker 4: I said, because people will come to see this, that's
7:21
Speaker 4: what people are looking for. They didn't listen to. They
7:23
Speaker 4: did down that pulpit, but they didn't knock down the chairs.
7:27
Speaker 4: What they've done today is they reposted them so they
7:31
Speaker 4: have a new kind of material on it.
7:33
Speaker 2: But when I went there, it was the original elbow
7:36
Speaker 2: was there. It's really really neat, you know, really neat. Okay.
7:39
Speaker 2: So then after he he was the president and pastor.
7:44
Speaker 4: Then the Libraria College opened the Libera College, but they
7:48
Speaker 4: didn't have enough faculty.
7:51
Speaker 2: They had a.
7:53
Speaker 4: Alexander Crommell who was a pH d from Cambridge University,
7:58
Speaker 4: you know, British African.
8:00
Speaker 2: And then there was Dan who was.
8:03
Speaker 4: Prolific in these languages and he was already you know,
8:06
Speaker 4: a headmaster. So he was given a Master of Arts
8:10
Speaker 4: degree to a Middlebury so he could lecture, and he
8:14
Speaker 4: began to lecture at the Librarian College.
8:18
Speaker 2: All right, and so there he.
8:20
Speaker 4: Is, he's doing that, he is lecturing, he's a pastor,
8:23
Speaker 4: and he's writing for the newspaper. Because it's critical that
8:26
Speaker 4: he seizes every single opportunity that he can, all right,
8:31
Speaker 4: so that he can say, oh, right in librarian in
8:34
Speaker 4: this place that he doesn't know, and it takes him
8:38
Speaker 4: into the into the countryside. Because the Presbyterians that are
8:41
Speaker 4: weak compared to the other ones like the German missionaries
8:46
Speaker 4: or the Vasili Missionaries or the Baptist or says some
8:52
Speaker 4: of the United Methodists.
8:54
Speaker 2: They had more storehols, pres potential, very conservative.
8:59
Speaker 4: They were the ones that were non non reform, so
9:01
Speaker 4: they were very snooty and all that sort of thing,
9:04
Speaker 4: and blind uh and the Caromel were the African American ones,
9:10
Speaker 4: you know in those days they call them legro what
9:13
Speaker 4: I call I use the word African American, I do
9:15
Speaker 4: not use.
9:16
Speaker 2: I don't use those terms because it's supposed to evolve
9:19
Speaker 2: and was supposed to be improved. So okay, And so.
9:26
Speaker 4: He goes into the interior where he meets the other
9:28
Speaker 4: tribes and he tries to convert them to Presbyterianism, and
9:33
Speaker 4: he finds out that they're all Muslim. Because they are
9:37
Speaker 4: Muslim and the Muslims have had a stronghold.
9:40
Speaker 2: He can't convert them because they are really most of them.
9:42
Speaker 4: So he decides to study why it is that the
9:46
Speaker 4: Arabs can get all these followers.
9:50
Speaker 2: But the Christians can't, and he finds.
9:53
Speaker 4: Out that it is because they adapt to the way
9:56
Speaker 4: of life of the.
9:58
Speaker 2: You know, different nationals that they read in Liberia.
10:01
Speaker 1: The man didn't go the Basque, bass Basa, the vibe.
10:09
Speaker 4: All of these are different, and they all speak different languages,
10:13
Speaker 4: but they're practicing Lae.
10:16
Speaker 2: So Blagen does two things.
10:18
Speaker 4: He learns the languages of the people of Liberia, and
10:22
Speaker 4: he begins to study.
10:24
Speaker 2: It's not an Arabic study Arabic.
10:27
Speaker 4: It is to teach himself Arabic so that he can
10:29
Speaker 4: then try to convert these Muslims to Christianity using a their.
10:36
Speaker 2: Own language and Arabic.
10:39
Speaker 5: Uh.
10:39
Speaker 2: He he has an interesting movement. He befriends these people,
10:45
Speaker 2: he learns their history.
10:47
Speaker 4: They treat him like this guest that he introduces them
10:49
Speaker 4: and he respects and this, and that he never converts
10:52
Speaker 4: to Islam at all, at no time.
10:55
Speaker 2: But he translates the Bible into Arabic so.
10:58
Speaker 4: That these emams can see that it's the same text.
11:03
Speaker 2: You know that it's not a different book altogether. You
11:05
Speaker 2: know that the Bible and the Accordana the same.
11:08
Speaker 4: Which is very very It was a very brilliant sort
11:10
Speaker 4: of strategy on his one and he did that.
11:12
Speaker 2: He did it in Liberia, he did it in Guinea,
11:14
Speaker 2: and he did it in se No. It was I.
11:17
Speaker 4: Think he really became passionate because he was trying to understand,
11:23
Speaker 4: you know why it was that these two important religions
11:27
Speaker 4: into African societies and communities were having such an effect. A.
11:33
Speaker 4: The muslim one educated the African, but the Christians were smoothly,
11:38
Speaker 4: they were stonished. They didn't really educate them the way
11:43
Speaker 4: say the Muslims did. They built a church that was foreign,
11:46
Speaker 4: They talked down to them, they changed their names and
11:49
Speaker 4: all of that, and and maybe the Muslims changed their
11:53
Speaker 4: names too, but the name sound they were similar. So
11:55
Speaker 4: it wasn't like there was a big traumatic thing to have.
11:57
Speaker 2: You know that the name changing.
11:58
Speaker 4: Was like an war put Okay, so he begins to
12:04
Speaker 4: study this country that it's in. It's going to be
12:06
Speaker 4: his country, right, and so it to be his country,
12:09
Speaker 4: he has to know it.
12:11
Speaker 2: He's a lecturer in the university.
12:14
Speaker 4: There's the American Colonization Society that's trying to promote its
12:18
Speaker 4: goodwill of having the slaves from the South repatriate to Liberia,
12:23
Speaker 4: right and settle and So because Cromwell and Blyden of
12:29
Speaker 4: the two like prime Time posted children that they have,
12:33
Speaker 4: they send them back to America to lecture in the
12:35
Speaker 4: churches about Liberia and why they should come to Liberia.
12:41
Speaker 4: And in the course of their doing this, the first
12:44
Speaker 4: one in eighteen sixty one, they were left, went to Maine,
12:47
Speaker 4: They went to Maryland, Virginia.
12:50
Speaker 2: There was Washington, d c.
12:52
Speaker 4: They went to New York, and in all of these
12:55
Speaker 4: wherever he did his decermon.
12:56
Speaker 2: One of the nice things is he wrote down the
12:58
Speaker 2: name of the church and the and so forth.
13:01
Speaker 4: But one they were successful in then in doing over
13:05
Speaker 4: celebrating what must have been to say, five years was
13:08
Speaker 4: to get eight chiploads of slaves emancipated to come and
13:14
Speaker 4: settle in Liberia, which was which was an achievement. So
13:19
Speaker 4: he stays there for twelve years. First and he decides
13:23
Speaker 4: he wants to go and see his mother. When he
13:25
Speaker 4: first asks that question, he's only been there six years.
13:29
Speaker 2: No, he has he stayed there, you know, for the
13:30
Speaker 2: service of the laws. Yes.
13:32
Speaker 4: The way, So after twelve years is when it goes
13:35
Speaker 4: back to the Virgin Islands too, which is then called
13:38
Speaker 4: the Danish West Indies, to see.
13:40
Speaker 2: His mother, and he's very excited about where he is.
13:44
Speaker 2: So when he goes there, he says hi to his mother.
13:48
Speaker 4: The neighborhoods comes out to bring cakes and everything to
13:51
Speaker 4: welcome him.
13:51
Speaker 2: He's even allowed to preach in the church, which is
13:54
Speaker 2: a dutchy for old church to preaching their church.
13:57
Speaker 4: Because he's he is family is a member of this
14:01
Speaker 4: church and he was christened there and there he comes.
14:04
Speaker 2: Back twelve years there is a lecturer in the university.
14:07
Speaker 2: He's a Pastian church, and so he tells them about
14:12
Speaker 2: library in this church.
14:13
Speaker 4: And the congrect community comes in the church because you know,
14:16
Speaker 4: they had their segregation, not so much segregather's discrimination with
14:20
Speaker 4: the Dutch and the and the you know, the you
14:23
Speaker 4: know African most African Americans or the you know.
14:27
Speaker 2: Most of them were free, but not all. Some still
14:32
Speaker 2: had with the right in the Moravian sect. Okay, So
14:37
Speaker 2: he preaches to them.
14:38
Speaker 6: But what really excites him about being there and he
14:42
Speaker 6: can't wait to go and tell the other Caribbean islands
14:46
Speaker 6: about this wonderful place where he is.
14:49
Speaker 2: And he goes and he tells them about Liberia. He
14:53
Speaker 2: tells them about what it's like living there.
14:55
Speaker 4: How the people live, and how if they come there
14:58
Speaker 4: to live, how they're going to have huge implantations.
15:01
Speaker 2: They're going to be independent and wealthy.
15:04
Speaker 4: He he talks up a storm, he takes a both,
15:07
Speaker 4: they take him in a boat.
15:09
Speaker 2: He sails to Antigua.
15:11
Speaker 4: He sails to Bahamas, Bahamas and Barbados, but he can't
15:16
Speaker 4: get to Jamaica because it's too far.
15:19
Speaker 2: They come. He sends out flyers. It's fly So they
15:22
Speaker 2: come to the island and he's giving lectures.
15:25
Speaker 4: The whole time. He said, yeah, this is his mother
15:28
Speaker 4: who he's going to see, because you've got to come.
15:32
Speaker 4: You have got to come there. Your life is going
15:34
Speaker 4: to change. This and that together. You know, the slaves
15:38
Speaker 4: from America, Yeah they're okay, but they're not like us.
15:41
Speaker 2: So he really really inspires them.
15:44
Speaker 4: And as a result, it is because of blinding with
15:48
Speaker 4: the Caribbean, immense Caribbean Caribbean natives of Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas,
15:58
Speaker 4: and Antigua. I think Antia is also all repatriate to Liberia.
16:05
Speaker 4: It's a fact, not from the American colonization society. They
16:12
Speaker 4: came there in the in the eighteen sixties.
16:16
Speaker 2: Like that, in the sixties, like that eighteen seventies.
16:19
Speaker 4: They kept coming and they did have plantations, and they
16:23
Speaker 4: did work hard.
16:24
Speaker 2: And what happened was they tended to have like a clique, you.
16:29
Speaker 4: Know, like a kind of you know, when you when
16:33
Speaker 4: you meet Caribbean islanders on the on the west, on
16:37
Speaker 4: the west coast of Africa or the East coast, they
16:41
Speaker 4: are a community by themselves. They work very well in
16:45
Speaker 4: the country where they are. They make significant changes, especially
16:48
Speaker 4: in the church, especially in skills, like training in skills.
16:52
Speaker 2: And so on and so forth. The Jamaicans are the ones.
16:55
Speaker 4: They were the ones who came more in mass because
16:58
Speaker 4: first there had been Jamie Cans sent there because of
17:03
Speaker 4: the recapturing recapturing of slave ships and setting them tree
17:09
Speaker 4: on Celeon soil.
17:11
Speaker 2: So there was.
17:12
Speaker 4: Already Jamaicans in cerah Yon, for example. So the Liberians
17:18
Speaker 4: that the Jamaicans who came to Liberia were familiar. So
17:22
Speaker 4: there was you have some transitive human leaving Liberia to
17:25
Speaker 4: go to vice versa, you know.
17:28
Speaker 2: But anyway, they were very hard working people. The only
17:32
Speaker 2: thing that.
17:32
Speaker 4: Is wrong with this whole story, and it was a
17:35
Speaker 4: problem that Blinden had a problem with, and that was
17:41
Speaker 4: the Liberian government, which was set up in eighteen forty
17:46
Speaker 4: seven as a republic.
17:48
Speaker 2: If you saw the first president, JJ Roberts, you would
17:52
Speaker 2: say he was a blue eye.
17:58
Speaker 4: Caucasian from and you know, there was nothing to save
18:02
Speaker 4: as black, and all of them that saved under him
18:06
Speaker 4: were his complexion. And they discriminated against the dark skill. Okay,
18:12
Speaker 4: with patriots, this began to be a problem. Okay, Guiden
18:18
Speaker 4: chlumnelled the.
18:21
Speaker 2: Pain with the pains.
18:24
Speaker 4: They began to roy, they began to hand the tensions.
18:29
Speaker 4: They began to resent because they were being discriminated against.
18:34
Speaker 4: They were not allowed to say, sit where they sat,
18:37
Speaker 4: or they couldn't do you know, they couldn't have this.
18:40
Speaker 4: And then the Presbyterians, their missionaries who came in the
18:44
Speaker 4: same capacity as what b and Chromol were doing.
18:48
Speaker 2: They were given houses complete with everything.
18:50
Speaker 4: Inside, whilst Blind and Clumbell were put in one little
18:54
Speaker 4: room and they had to have a partition both of them,
18:56
Speaker 4: by them had married, and so they had these fower
19:00
Speaker 4: is in this woodle tight room outside of the Presbyterian church.
19:06
Speaker 4: They did not make provision. There was all of that
19:09
Speaker 4: kind of discrimination, but it did not deter them. That's
19:12
Speaker 4: the interesting part. It did not deter not blight and
19:15
Speaker 4: not trouble. And none of the ones that were the
19:17
Speaker 4: darsking ones. They were the harder working ones. They were
19:20
Speaker 4: the ones who went out into the field. They were
19:22
Speaker 4: the ones who did the report, They were the ones
19:24
Speaker 4: who made the innovations.
19:25
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, right.
19:28
Speaker 4: The mulatto tended to discriminate. They were the American Liberians.
19:35
Speaker 2: And they had plantations and they had servance. Is that right?
19:42
Speaker 2: And that same kind of social mentality that was there
19:44
Speaker 2: in America, they brought it to.
19:48
Speaker 4: Blind and began to speak out, okay against this, began
19:53
Speaker 4: to speak out against that kind of social discrimination and.
19:57
Speaker 2: How you know it was unfair. Even the salaries were different.
20:01
Speaker 4: There's a lot of tension that went on, and so
20:04
Speaker 4: uh yeah, at one time, uh they the molasses quite angry.
20:10
Speaker 2: I don't know.
20:10
Speaker 4: He criticized him in a in a in a speech
20:14
Speaker 4: or in a letter, and they dragged tis. He had
20:20
Speaker 4: a friend and this friend ran alongside him as he
20:23
Speaker 4: was being dragged up, dragged up the hill ground hill
20:26
Speaker 4: it's called it still stands gun with this rope around
20:30
Speaker 4: his neck and this friend had his finger between the
20:32
Speaker 4: rope and blinded his neck, which is why he was
20:35
Speaker 4: his neck did not slack.
20:37
Speaker 2: But then he had to leave Liberia, okay because there
20:40
Speaker 2: was this anger but you know, but by but this
20:44
Speaker 2: is you know.
20:45
Speaker 4: Coming along even Rand for the presidency of Liberia.
20:49
Speaker 2: And of course he did not win.
20:51
Speaker 4: Uh he knew he wasn't going to win, you know,
20:54
Speaker 4: because not for just the social discrimination of it.
20:58
Speaker 2: The politics tended to the mulatter.
21:02
Speaker 4: The Presbyterian whites who administered the missions, they too were partial.
21:08
Speaker 2: Right to the light skinned.
21:10
Speaker 4: Okay, they call themselves as I said, Americal librarian Gliden
21:15
Speaker 4: appealed to them in his sermons in his inaugural addresses
21:21
Speaker 4: during independent stay and at the university that look, we
21:25
Speaker 4: are here as an independent republic, and we have a
21:29
Speaker 4: nation of people. We have to ooh, that's why we
21:32
Speaker 4: are called the Republic of Liberia. You cannot exclude seventy
21:37
Speaker 4: five percent of your population.
21:40
Speaker 2: And say that you're a nation. You're a republic. You
21:42
Speaker 2: have to be inclusive. You cannot get ahead if you
21:46
Speaker 2: don't go in.
21:47
Speaker 4: And find out who it is that are our subjects.
21:52
Speaker 4: You cannot exclude the native from your overall activities all
21:55
Speaker 4: the time, because nobody would believe them that you were
21:58
Speaker 4: an authentic republic and the people themselves will resent you, okay,
22:04
Speaker 4: and so as a result, over and over, this was
22:07
Speaker 4: over and over. He had gone, he'd studied, he gave
22:11
Speaker 4: lectures about the different ethnic groups. He did a lot
22:14
Speaker 4: of things to try and get people to just go
22:18
Speaker 4: in and work with the librarian ethnic groups that were there.
22:25
Speaker 4: They didn't listen. They kept on with Liamnico librarian thing.
22:30
Speaker 4: You know, the social climbed, the molacto, this, that and
22:35
Speaker 4: the other. This is what led to the twenty five
22:37
Speaker 4: year instability that later on afflicted librarian in the twentieth century.
22:45
Speaker 4: It was ugly. It was really ugly. I mean your
22:49
Speaker 4: own Yes, they have thereto it. Oh no, when I
22:53
Speaker 4: went there, I actually saw it.
22:55
Speaker 6: I literally saw it, and witness did and I thought
23:01
Speaker 6: to myself, oh, so this is what it is.
23:04
Speaker 4: And then when they saw me and they said, oh,
23:05
Speaker 4: that's Blithens, that's Bliden's granddaughter.
23:09
Speaker 2: Oh she doesn't like Milannims, that's you know.
23:12
Speaker 4: They whispered that, and I thought, and I turned and smiled,
23:16
Speaker 4: you know, and said hello, because I didn't wasn't in
23:19
Speaker 4: lad I wasn't Liberian.
23:20
Speaker 2: I mean I came from Zera Leo. I had access
23:23
Speaker 2: to Liberian citizenship.
23:25
Speaker 4: And even now for the bison tenary, which I'd like
23:28
Speaker 4: to also mention is the lump to parents to have
23:34
Speaker 4: for him so that the whole of West Africa can
23:37
Speaker 4: have a bison deenery.
23:39
Speaker 2: We don't have anybody that tied the bison deenerary before.
23:42
Speaker 2: You haven't. It's not it's not been like that.
23:45
Speaker 4: And he served in eight countries in West Africa.
23:50
Speaker 2: There's seventeen.
23:52
Speaker 4: He spoke the languages, he taught schools, he opened churches,
23:59
Speaker 4: he started news papers in three of the colleges. Nigeria,
24:02
Speaker 4: which is a big country. His grandfather was from there,
24:06
Speaker 4: so he tried to sail down to the east of
24:08
Speaker 4: Nigeria to see if he could find his relative or
24:11
Speaker 4: anybody didn't look like him so he could say, well.
24:13
Speaker 2: Oh I find But sadly he did not. He did
24:15
Speaker 2: not see any of his relatives.
24:18
Speaker 4: But he was very enthusiastic and intensely passionate.
24:24
Speaker 2: And living on the West African coast, he was he was.
24:30
Speaker 4: He had a lot of diverse skills, He had a
24:32
Speaker 4: lot of positions. He tried to fail, you know, and
24:36
Speaker 4: of course you know when you're trying to fulfill a
24:38
Speaker 4: lot of positions.
24:39
Speaker 2: And then you don't have enough time, you know, or stemin,
24:41
Speaker 2: and naturally you're going to flounder.
24:43
Speaker 4: You know, he's not gonna be complete, you know, you're
24:46
Speaker 4: always gonna have to go back, you know.
24:48
Speaker 2: And so in eighteen eighteen eighty seven, he convinces.
24:56
Speaker 4: The president then is A James Paine, to send him
25:00
Speaker 4: to represent Liberia as ambassador because you know, he thinks
25:06
Speaker 4: that Libraria is a republic and should represent in the
25:09
Speaker 4: world like every other country. They said no, because it's
25:16
Speaker 4: not possible, you know, we're not.
25:17
Speaker 2: Ready, we don't have the money. So he says, well,
25:19
Speaker 2: let me go anyway. I don't have to get a salary.
25:21
Speaker 2: It's okay, just send me there and I will promote
25:27
Speaker 2: the country and like that. So he goes there without
25:30
Speaker 2: a salary.
25:31
Speaker 4: But what happens is is an American, not millionaire, but
25:35
Speaker 4: a wealthy American who supports the Embassy of Iberiance and
25:39
Speaker 4: supports his mission there. First, he promotes Liberia effectively, he
25:46
Speaker 4: meets the literary people because by the then he's published,
25:49
Speaker 4: he's published three books. He's published his first book in
25:54
Speaker 4: eighteen fifty nine entitled Liberia's Offering, His second book is
25:59
Speaker 4: for a Staff a Paristyte, and his third book is
26:03
Speaker 4: Christianity Islam and then.
26:05
Speaker 1: Wins if I may, If I may, though I want to,
26:09
Speaker 1: I just want to highlight for those that are listening
26:13
Speaker 1: joining us, that tonight is really an opportunity to hear
26:18
Speaker 1: and learn about the honorable Reverend doctor Edward willman Lyden.
26:25
Speaker 2: He was born.
26:27
Speaker 1: Today Agous third eighteen. Going to get there because I
26:33
Speaker 1: know that our time is going to expire, and I
26:36
Speaker 1: just want to make sure that I pay Yeah, because
26:40
Speaker 1: now well we're going to come back and do this again,
26:42
Speaker 1: and that way we can also have you before we
26:45
Speaker 1: close tonight share about the VI centenary and so forth.
26:48
Speaker 1: But I just wanted to highlight.
26:49
Speaker 2: No, no, I was not going to men.
26:52
Speaker 4: I met in pasting and when I said he was,
26:55
Speaker 4: I forgot to tell you what he was born August.
27:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, no worries, but I just wanted to stop.
27:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, but before you continue, just let me just share
27:06
Speaker 1: with those because these persons are coming in because they
27:09
Speaker 1: thought we were going on earlier, so they're coming in
27:12
Speaker 1: because they're seeing the thing. No, no, don't, no pologies
27:14
Speaker 1: require but I just want to highlight some of the
27:17
Speaker 1: titles as you've shared Liberia the Land of Promise to
27:20
Speaker 1: free colored Men, Liberia's Offering being addresses, sermons, et cetera,
27:27
Speaker 1: The Origin and Purpose of African colonization, discourse are Origin
27:31
Speaker 1: and Dangers and Duties right exactly. And they would have
27:35
Speaker 1: annually they were defined as annual addresses. But you can
27:38
Speaker 1: easily go online now and see most of them have
27:42
Speaker 1: been preserved and archived. Right in eighteen sixty nine, then
27:48
Speaker 1: Negro in Ancient History in eighteen seventy one, the People
27:51
Speaker 1: of Africa eighteenie. Well, no you know what you know? No,
27:59
Speaker 1: non't worry about it. See this, this is what I've learned.
28:02
Speaker 1: He gave the sermon earlier when it was published as
28:09
Speaker 1: a pub Yeah, right, then that's the year that they
28:12
Speaker 1: have a documented as. But you are absolutely correct in
28:15
Speaker 1: terms of when the actual sermon or annual address was delivered.
28:20
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm just saying so people get clarity
28:22
Speaker 1: on the titles like the Negro and Ancient History, the
28:26
Speaker 1: People of Africa a serious and notice this was a
28:28
Speaker 1: series of papers that were actually done collaboratively around African
28:35
Speaker 1: people's character, their condition, and future prospects. But he did
28:39
Speaker 1: that with Theodore Dwight along with Taylor Lewis, And again
28:43
Speaker 1: these are persons that were not only attached to the
28:46
Speaker 1: church or theological spaces, but these are persons that were
28:50
Speaker 1: doing things globally around this research. He was writing in
28:54
Speaker 1: the eighteen and speaking on it in the eighteen sixties,
28:57
Speaker 1: but writing about it in the eighteen seventies from West
29:01
Speaker 1: Africa to Palestine. So this issue with Palestine is not new.
29:05
Speaker 1: So I think people should know that persons as great
29:08
Speaker 1: as Reverend doctor Edward Wilmerblyden was already in that space.
29:12
Speaker 1: The aims and methods of a liberal education for Africans,
29:15
Speaker 1: the origin and purpose of African colonization, and again these
29:19
Speaker 1: were discourses that were ongoing, and in what to define
29:22
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty seven that we can find as a
29:25
Speaker 1: culmination of these publications and these annual addresses Christianity, Islam,
29:32
Speaker 1: and the Negro race, which is a significant contribution to literature, research, history,
29:40
Speaker 1: social sciences, and much more to really understand what heed, yeah, exactly.
29:46
Speaker 1: And then of course West Africa before Europe, which was
29:49
Speaker 1: written after that, and then African Life and Customs that
29:52
Speaker 1: was written after that. But again these are coming and yeah,
29:55
Speaker 1: these are coming from annual addresses, and I just felt
29:58
Speaker 1: it's important that people know when when you were talking
30:00
Speaker 1: about the colorisms back in the day and the types
30:05
Speaker 1: of discrimination that he that your great grandfather endured. He
30:09
Speaker 1: has this quote that many people keep I used to
30:12
Speaker 1: have it memorized, but I like to read these things
30:14
Speaker 1: so that I don't misrepresent things. And I quote, if
30:18
Speaker 1: we are to make an independent nation a strong nation,
30:23
Speaker 1: we must listen to the songs of our unsophisticated redren
30:28
Speaker 1: as they sing of their history. And that just goes back.
30:31
Speaker 1: That's a very delicate way of speaking of the colorisms,
30:35
Speaker 1: the internalized, internalized discrimination that wasn't racism because of lack
30:42
Speaker 1: of power, but contributed to the kind of racist behavior
30:46
Speaker 1: that others launched on people of African ancestry, you know.
30:49
Speaker 1: And again his whole conversation. So, because I know that
30:53
Speaker 1: we're going to be short on time, so I want
30:55
Speaker 1: to let you close out your point share about the
30:58
Speaker 1: license CENTERI.
31:00
Speaker 4: No, I wasn't going to I was only going to
31:02
Speaker 4: mention that in passing because I assume I'm going to
31:05
Speaker 4: have one other opportunity to speak on this.
31:09
Speaker 2: I was going to speak differently on another channel.
31:13
Speaker 4: Let's say we're going to have and you asked me
31:15
Speaker 4: about that, then I could say that. But where I
31:17
Speaker 4: stopped was actually where I.
31:20
Speaker 2: Had wanted to stop. First. I wanted to say two days.
31:24
Speaker 4: The Negro in ancient history, believe it or not, had
31:28
Speaker 4: such a profound impact on W. E. B du Boy
31:32
Speaker 4: because he never knew that Africans had had any civilization whatsoever.
31:38
Speaker 4: He was shocked to know that they had built palaces,
31:41
Speaker 4: that they were kings, that they were doing all these things,
31:44
Speaker 4: that gold. He it just blew his mind and that's
31:47
Speaker 4: how he became about Africans.
31:50
Speaker 2: He was. It completely changed him. He moved to Dominator
31:56
Speaker 2: and that's where he dies. But the whole time was
32:00
Speaker 2: as as my father would say, you know and say,
32:03
Speaker 2: but Blyden, how could I be ah? Are I a
32:08
Speaker 2: Negro first? And you know that that whole thing And
32:11
Speaker 2: then he says.
32:11
Speaker 4: No, you're first and Africa and then you're human And
32:16
Speaker 4: this is just somebody's perceptionally took him along.
32:19
Speaker 2: I said, can you imagine they had shifts and books? Right?
32:23
Speaker 4: He called her first conference, Bliden could not attend. It
32:28
Speaker 4: was in Paris, so he could not.
32:29
Speaker 2: He could not go.
32:31
Speaker 4: But one person that went. That's interesting just for your
32:34
Speaker 4: information is Madam C. J.
32:36
Speaker 2: Walker. Madam C J. Walker went applied to go.
32:41
Speaker 4: The American government would not give her visa, so she
32:45
Speaker 4: ended up in the sadly not going. But what she
32:47
Speaker 4: did do she opened the school for girls in Togo
32:50
Speaker 4: because Bliden had been talking about how women's education was
32:53
Speaker 4: such an important thing and he had been seeking for
32:57
Speaker 4: this associal That's what she buid to school in Togo.
33:00
Speaker 2: Another woman who was there.
33:01
Speaker 4: Thing she builds a school and not Benian but in
33:03
Speaker 4: another and not in Liberia, but.
33:06
Speaker 2: She opens or they sent the nations, but C. J.
33:09
Speaker 2: Walker school was in Togo. Mm hmmm uh.
33:13
Speaker 1: And continue to continues and continue, I mean in the
33:16
Speaker 1: efforts continue to her foundation in different parts of Africa.
33:21
Speaker 4: Right his writings, he would one day would say, well,
33:25
Speaker 4: you know you're doing.
33:26
Speaker 2: All of this. Who's who's gonna Who's going to see
33:29
Speaker 2: all of this? You know, blight and he would say,
33:31
Speaker 2: they're going to pick it up.
33:34
Speaker 4: Somebody will pick this up and they'll read it and
33:37
Speaker 4: then they'll pass it on and they'll do what is it.
33:41
Speaker 2: There the Caribbean.
33:44
Speaker 7: I come back to the canbyon one last time because
33:48
Speaker 7: of extremely big importance is the role of the from Barbados,
33:55
Speaker 7: because they made a significant majority.
33:59
Speaker 2: They had a tradition.
34:01
Speaker 4: They had to excel and achieve because Blinden, that's what
34:05
Speaker 4: Bliden wanted a second So each time, whatever the person
34:10
Speaker 4: they would take, you know, they would. They open schools
34:12
Speaker 4: for Muslims, they open schools for Christians. They raised their
34:16
Speaker 4: people to have skills and to go into the integers.
34:19
Speaker 2: That he wanted.
34:20
Speaker 4: But the most beautiful one is of a man called
34:24
Speaker 4: Romeo Horton, who to honor that legacy that Blinden had left,
34:31
Speaker 4: like Marcus Gardley, started the Back to Africa movement. All
34:34
Speaker 4: of them had they had read something they did, they
34:37
Speaker 4: went and did it. Horton decided to create the first bank,
34:43
Speaker 4: savings bank for the period Firestone was so angry and
34:50
Speaker 4: almost burned down their Liberians want a bank when they
34:55
Speaker 4: Firestone had given them their own bank they were supposed
34:57
Speaker 4: to have. So Hortem then moves on and creates the
35:02
Speaker 4: first African Development Bank for the independent African.
35:07
Speaker 2: Nations that took place in the sixties and seventies. Okay,
35:10
Speaker 2: he creates this bank.
35:13
Speaker 4: All as well, they're supposed to put in forty thousand
35:17
Speaker 4: a piece per country, so that when they have to
35:19
Speaker 4: develop anything, the African Development Bank was there. But because
35:23
Speaker 4: the new African nations did not want to be attached
35:25
Speaker 4: to their all colonial masters.
35:27
Speaker 2: They didn't want that, say, they're taking them so long
35:29
Speaker 2: to get out of it.
35:31
Speaker 4: They decided they were not going to be aligned to
35:33
Speaker 4: any particular Europeans. Whoever said development they would work with them,
35:39
Speaker 4: and so they had this non alignment movement.
35:41
Speaker 2: That started with NASA in Egypt.
35:44
Speaker 4: You will not believe that by the end of the seventies,
35:48
Speaker 4: all those kinds of state that had and that had
35:53
Speaker 4: joined that none of them were aligned. They'd all been
35:57
Speaker 4: killed with press facimated, and the African Development Bank therefore
36:04
Speaker 4: never had a continuity that it was supposed to have.
36:07
Speaker 4: I was taken over by the American Banking, the administration
36:13
Speaker 4: so brivate ones and the African Development Bank is run
36:18
Speaker 4: with the import, export and everything, but by the United States.
36:24
Speaker 1: I just hope it's important. I think it's important to
36:27
Speaker 1: that's part. Yeah, that's very very important for a variety
36:30
Speaker 1: of reasons. But I like for as we get ready, yes,
36:34
Speaker 1: you know, and I think it's important to know that
36:36
Speaker 1: he was a Basian, especially with the republic status that
36:40
Speaker 1: you know, our newest Republican the Caribbean is Barbados under
36:44
Speaker 1: the leadership of Her Excellency Mia Motley, and this type
36:47
Speaker 1: of froment and the fact that right now, in the
36:51
Speaker 1: last couple of years, the developments have been put in place.
36:53
Speaker 1: So where is the twenty twenty where is the African
36:57
Speaker 1: Export Import Bank for the development now in twenty twenty
37:02
Speaker 1: five and Barbados' I just think it's very important to
37:08
Speaker 1: know that that is what exists now.
37:10
Speaker 4: I had not read that I'm going to send my
37:12
Speaker 4: money to.
37:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I think it's important for persons to also
37:18
Speaker 1: know that the illustrious founder and first president of the
37:24
Speaker 1: Bank of Liberia and of course the African Development Bank
37:27
Speaker 1: a Romeo Gorton. In addition to being from Barbados, I
37:31
Speaker 1: think it's important to know that he too spent significant
37:36
Speaker 1: time around that the various Booker T. Washington Institute. He
37:43
Speaker 1: spent time around the Moorhouse College environment. He actually attended there.
37:49
Speaker 4: And he opened the Banks African Americans in Pennsylvania.
37:52
Speaker 2: Correct.
37:54
Speaker 1: And he was also an assistant economic advisor to William
38:01
Speaker 1: before he was promoted as the first Secretary of commerce,
38:05
Speaker 1: industry and labor. I just think these are again, we
38:08
Speaker 1: could spend a lot of time on the historiography and
38:10
Speaker 1: the chronology of how well.
38:12
Speaker 4: I wanted to show the influence of how when when
38:17
Speaker 4: people were passionate to a place, you know, like how
38:20
Speaker 4: we have go back to Africa diaspora people returning the
38:23
Speaker 4: character and nature of the diaspora returnees in the nineteenth
38:28
Speaker 4: century during that second half and not necessarily because of
38:32
Speaker 4: blinded but because that's when there were it was the
38:36
Speaker 4: same zero that they had, the same zero as slaves
38:39
Speaker 4: that they had in the places where they were enslave.
38:41
Speaker 4: When they came to Liberia, that same zero did not disappear.
38:46
Speaker 4: They had to rise against it. So many of the
38:51
Speaker 4: some of them came and they immediately started businesses because
38:54
Speaker 4: it was critical, you know, to make money.
38:58
Speaker 2: But they had to survive.
39:00
Speaker 1: This is my question very quickly, because I know that
39:03
Speaker 1: our engineer, Okay, I want you to have your closing
39:07
Speaker 1: reflection and then we're going to close out, and we
39:09
Speaker 1: know that we're going to return get past our technological
39:13
Speaker 1: issues so that our viewers and listeners can see you.
39:17
Speaker 1: And in the interim, will you will send me pictures.
39:21
Speaker 1: You'll you'll send me pictures of yourself so that I
39:24
Speaker 1: can put a face to this informative presentation that you
39:30
Speaker 1: shared with us. So please give us your closing word,
39:34
Speaker 1: Sister Eisen.
39:35
Speaker 4: Okay, so I am so. I told you that he
39:39
Speaker 4: went to be ambassable in England. That's where he stopped.
39:45
Speaker 4: I did not mention about his chip Palistine, but based
39:50
Speaker 4: on that because I would have been, you know, I
39:51
Speaker 4: would have been having to go back there, this and.
39:53
Speaker 2: That and the other.
39:54
Speaker 4: But in the in the so to celebrate his birthday,
39:58
Speaker 4: this day, every room of light and day. The second
40:03
Speaker 4: publicity in the battle is to the publication of the
40:05
Speaker 4: book from my sample bit of Palestine this year.
40:09
Speaker 2: The book will be out in October.
40:11
Speaker 4: The reason why is because everybody wants to recognize the
40:15
Speaker 4: state of Palestine and Palestine as a state independent. And
40:20
Speaker 4: the reasons for promoting this just for your information is
40:25
Speaker 4: because my great grandfather traveled to a country called Palestine
40:30
Speaker 4: in eighteen sixty six. Because it was there, it had
40:33
Speaker 4: been there for several hundreds of years.
40:36
Speaker 2: It was not a by the way. It went on
40:39
Speaker 2: the lots of difficulties, it is true, but he went
40:42
Speaker 2: to a country called Palistine, which is why he entitled
40:46
Speaker 2: the book the way he did.
40:48
Speaker 4: And one of the things that happens when in eighteen
40:50
Speaker 4: seventy three he's submitting the manuscript and he's finished it.
40:53
Speaker 2: When he finishes it on Christmas.
40:54
Speaker 4: Day in eighteen seventy three, he writes, this book will
40:59
Speaker 4: be a tremendous importance one hundred and fifty years from
41:04
Speaker 4: this state, and in two thousand and twenty three is
41:10
Speaker 4: when the war broke out in Palestine.
41:14
Speaker 2: To be that, to be that present, to be that
41:18
Speaker 2: presient a.
41:20
Speaker 4: Thirty four year old man, I mean, it's just it
41:23
Speaker 4: just it blows your mind because he was a psychic,
41:26
Speaker 4: but he was you know, he was a media person.
41:29
Speaker 2: He loved the media. He loved the publicity.
41:31
Speaker 4: He just loved being a media person, the news to
41:34
Speaker 4: make sure everybody was informed.
41:36
Speaker 2: It was critical for him.
41:38
Speaker 1: So with that he had more so with that, I
41:41
Speaker 1: just know because of our extended time.
41:47
Speaker 2: Earlier.
41:48
Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for just joining us,
41:52
Speaker 1: even as audio. And I'm a little bit biased because
41:56
Speaker 1: I can see her on the other device we're speaking
41:59
Speaker 1: on and you you all are unable to see her.
42:01
Speaker 1: But we will correct that in the future, and I
42:05
Speaker 1: hope that the audio provides enough interest so that when
42:09
Speaker 1: we introduce Sister Queen Blighten for our next podcast, after
42:14
Speaker 1: we get to this videography piece of issue, that we
42:18
Speaker 1: can actually take it to the next level. And I
42:20
Speaker 1: want to thank you most humbly for sharing this time
42:24
Speaker 1: as we honor the illustrious, most well respected international Bible
42:32
Speaker 1: of Pan Africanism African fundamentally.
42:36
Speaker 4: Can I just say one thing to the audiences that
42:39
Speaker 4: they'll understand that this is the Edward will Blinden Day. Okay,
42:44
Speaker 4: let's proclaimed in the Virgin Islands, but we're trying to
42:48
Speaker 4: promote in West Africa because West Africa doesn't doesn't We're
42:52
Speaker 4: just doing it now. The objective is to make all
42:54
Speaker 4: of the African Union recognize it as the day for
42:58
Speaker 4: the whole continent, that that's the frusting.
43:01
Speaker 5: And that the day celebrates young Pan Africans in the
43:06
Speaker 5: diaspora and in Africa, because the Pan African movement is
43:10
Speaker 5: very not right now, and that's what young people in Africa.
43:14
Speaker 2: Are clinging to in the diaspora, they're clinging to it.
43:19
Speaker 4: Governments in West Africa are claiming it as the only
43:22
Speaker 4: way that they can.
43:24
Speaker 2: Do, dude, that's the beauty of this.
43:29
Speaker 1: So blessed, thank you again and again, it's been a
43:32
Speaker 1: wonderful way to not just celebrate, but to actually observe, commemorate,
43:39
Speaker 1: and respect the memory of the honorable, most illustrious, well
43:45
Speaker 1: respected where people say most right, honorable Reverend doctor Edward
43:51
Speaker 1: will mc blyden. And again you've been listening to us Speaks,
43:54
Speaker 1: where we always highlight knowledge, power and prosperity here on
43:59
Speaker 1: the Crew podcast. Want to thank all you that were
44:02
Speaker 1: able to tune in, listen and appreciate and welcome this information.
44:06
Speaker 1: If you have any questions, any input, we'd like to
44:09
Speaker 1: see more of this. You can email us at a
44:12
Speaker 1: ST Speaks, a s t Speaks at gmail dot com,
44:17
Speaker 1: or link into any of our platforms here on social media. Remember,
44:21
Speaker 1: Culture Heels, Humanity Land is our foundation and spiritual harmony
44:25
Speaker 1: unifies us. And we look forward to you joining us
44:28
Speaker 1: for another podcast. And again, blessed, Reverend Doctor Edward Woman
44:33
Speaker 1: Blidende August third, Yes, yes we're really.
44:42
Speaker 4: And I agree with all your audience that I do
44:44
Speaker 4: not see and that I hope.
44:49
Speaker 2: For another meeting
44:53
Speaker 1: Of course, and God bless you, bless blessing