The request for funding from the Committee on Race Relations is for a segment during the First Annual Black Graduate Student Association Week (BGSA). BGSA Week will take place during the week of February 16 through February 24 and will have a host of activities, many of which will be in celebration of Black History Month which is during the month of February. The particular segment of BGSA Week that we are requesting funding for will be a lecture on the Maafa by Erriel Roberson of Baltimore, Maryland during the early evening of February 23, 1996. Roberson is the co-founder and co-owner of Kujichagulia Press. He has also written two books, Awaken: Creating a Blueprint for Enlightenment, Organization & Freedom and The Maafa & Beyond: Rememberance, Ancestral Connections and Nation Building for the African Global Community.

The lecture will be on the Maafa. The Maafa is a Kiswahili [East African] word that means great suffering, calamity or several other descriptors. The theme depicts a more vivid and accurate description of the so-called "African slave trade" (or "the Atlantic slave trade") which has been commonly used and does not begin to describe the African Holocaust. Maafa appropriately describes the level of atrocities that diasporic Africans have suffered and continued to suffer from. The lecture will cover the present day conditions in African diaspora as they relate to the Maafa and how we are still effected. Included during the lecture will be solutions presented to diasporic Africans for healing, building and moving forward.

The intention of the lecture is to address the level of suffering of diasporic Africans. By acknowledging the fact that diasporic Africans have inherited these turbulent emotions, diasporic Africans can begin to effectively work towards positive solutions as they relate to their psyche. Diasporic Africans continue to be effected by these issues, however, the issues are seldom dealt with. The intended audience is the entire MIT community and they may benefit from this discussion by having a greater awareness of Black people and the level of intensity of Black people's history of suffering. The African Holocaust is a portion of history that does not seem to be effectively studied in communities outside of the Black community. This greater awareness may provide a greater understanding of disaporic Africans for individuals outside of the Black community. Moreover, this greater awareness may provide a continuation of dialogue amongst people of all ethnicities and races in an effort to better race relations. For those of non-African descent, this lecture will provide a window of opportunity to learn more about the Maafa. And they may begin to dialogue with Black people in order to clarify any misconceptions that they may have due to the lack of knowledge concerning African history.

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Nkosi Ato Diop
Chair of BGSA Week
Co-Chair of BGSA
phone number: 441-5119
e-mail: diop@mit.edu