Uncategorized
Babatunde Harrison, Journalist Griot in the Diaspora
Historic Cape Coast was a fishing village when the Portuguese first arrived there in the 1500. They named the place Cabo Corso after the short promontory that formed the fishing cove. The castle was built by the Dutch in 1650, and expanded by the Swedes in 1652. The English changed the name to Cape Coast after they captured the castle in 1664. Cape Coast developed around the castle and the slave trade. Photo by Michael L. Tuite.
The Ancestress, Alice Ewurafua Baoye Arthur, at home with her great grandchildren in Hayward: Anthony Adeyinka DaSilva, JR., (far Left), Miles DaSilva, next to the Ancestress, Christiana Folarinde DaSilva and Malik DaSilva. Photo by Kenneth Walker.
In 2007, Alice Arthur returned to Cape Coast after a three year sojourn in the U.S. In the picture are the Ancestress, (second from left), Auntie Araba, (far left), Maame Yohan Coker, (next to the Ancestress), Dr. Folarinde Christiana Harrison (in eye glasses), Mrs. Sally Adjei (nee Harrison), second from right and Ms. Rebecca Buckman, far right. Photo by James Adetokunbo Harrison.
Part II
By Babatunde Harrison
In the ancient African empires of West Africa, the Griot was the custodian of the histories and genealogies of the people of West Africa. Through epic songs and poetry, the Griot told and preserved the traditions and memories of ancient Mali, Songhai and Ghana..
Since the arrival of the Portuguese, the Cape Coast was gradually transformed into a slave port and emporium where Africans were bought and sold in exchange for gold, liquor and gun powder and then exported to the plantations of the Americas.
At the spot where the Portuguese landed stands the Cape Coast slave castle dungeon, built by the Dutch, English and Portuguese, which served as a brief tortuous warehouse, housing millions of African captives before exportation.
The Cape Coast Castle is a symbolic archival story of the African in the Diaspora. There are not enough Griots to tell the stories of the brave men, women and children who lived through the pain and stench of the dungeon castle.
This castle holds millions of intangible horror stories. And, annually, thousands of descendants of the millions gone return to pass through this dungeon to imagine and relive the horrors their ancestors.
There are Caucasian historians who make believe and tell tales that slavery came to an end at some dubious point in history. With tongue in cheek, the same historians tell the awesome tales of how the French, the British, the Germans, the Portuguese and the Spanish congregated in Berlin in 1844 and carved out portions of Africa as colonial possessions.
There are Griots, colonial and post-colonial Griots, whose perspectives on the colonial question were offensive to some European minds.. It took decades for Africans to emancipate from the mental slavery conditioned by colonialism.
I am a Griot after the generation of James Kwegyir Aggrey, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Kwame Nkrumah, nationalists from the colonial regime of British West Africa.
I was born in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, at the end of World War II, and my father, Albert Akinola Harrison, was the son of Emmanuel Jenkins Harrison of Lagos, Nigeria, who was a lawyer and soldier in the British West Africa Frontier Force.
My mother, Alice Ewurafua Baoye Arthur, was a trained seamstress and a daughter of the Royal Abadze Egyir Dwin Family of Ambrado Yard, Cape Coast.
Diaspora, is defined as “the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland or people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location.”
Labia Harrison, my great grandfather, was kidnapped in the early 1800s by Fulani slave raiders and sold to a Portuguese slave ship bound for the Americas. The ship was intercepted by the British Navy and diverted to Sierra Leone where the captive Africans were freed at Freetown.
In Freetown, he joined the Anglican Church and trained as a tailor. He later returned to Nigeria, settling in Abeokuta and Lagos. Labia Harrrison had an only son, Emmanuel Jenkins Harrison, after whom I was named.
He attended Christian Mission Society (CMS) Grammar School; entered Government service from 1901 to 1911 as a clerk in the Judicial Department until he went to England to study law.
According to the. (The Red Book of West Africa), he was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1911.
He had five children and several grandchildren, including Dr. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate.
I consider myself the family Griot because I am a trained journalist, and the first born and only male of the five children of my father’s branch of the Harrison family. The Harrison family is dispersed in the Diaspora, in England and America and being an Abadzenana of Cape Coast I see the African in the Diaspora as kith and kin.
Uncategorized
Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments
Special to The Post
The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.
In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”
In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.
The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:
Mandela Station Affordable
- 238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
- Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 1451 7th St.
Liberation Park Residences
- 118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $28 million
- Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
- City Council District: 6
- Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.
34th & San Pablo
- 59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $7 million
- Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.
The Eliza
- 96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $20 million
- Developer: Mercy Housing California
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.
3135 San Pablo
- 72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $10.5 million
- Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.
The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.
Activism
Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments
In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”
Special to The Post
The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.
In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”
In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.
The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:
Mandela Station Affordable
- 238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
- Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 1451 7th St.
Liberation Park Residences
- 118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $28 million
- Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
- City Council District: 6
- Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.
34th & San Pablo
- 59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $7 million
- Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.
The Eliza
- 96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $20 million
- Developer: Mercy Housing California
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.
3135 San Pablo
- 72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
- Award: $10.5 million
- Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
- City Council District: 3
- Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.
The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.
Alameda County
Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion
The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.
Special to The Post
The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.
The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.
Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:
- The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
- The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net
In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”
The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.
“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.
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