I
would like to stress that although I am the Founder
of Ligali, far from the unfortunate misconception, Ligali
is a not a one-man organisation. The Ligali ‘family’
consists of several core members who head up our main
sectors and liase with the community we work for. We
are a community for the community.
Ligali was initially founded in 2001
to challenge media misrepresentation of African people.
Two years later I find that describing the work and
ethos of Ligali in a few words is a difficult task as
our remit is so wide and all encompassing.
As an organisation we fundamentally
strive for equality but, our core focus is on working
as an African civil rights movement that acts as one
of the many spiritual and cultural gatekeepers for our
community in the UK. Ligali's core aims are to;
Identify, challenge and eradicate all racist, and sexist
representations of African people in the media.
Identify, establish and implement workable solutions
to increase academic achievement.
Identify, establish and implement solutions which reduce
the root causes of crime.
Work in partnership with, support and
encourage unity between other like minded individuals
and organisations within our community.
Create and provide our own diverse
mono cultural media network and resources
Speak up uncompromisingly giving a
legitimate political voice reflecting the true concerns
of the African British community.
As founder of Ligali it is my responsibility to ensure
Ligali never loses focus or integrity. Our broad remit
often means that we are often doing 'firsts' practically,
morally, and sometimes legally. This often means that
in making great strides in the right direction, we will
occasionally make mistakes. We are readily prepared
to accept this and always strive to learn and grow from
our experiences.
We are not a 'talking shop' and have
a firm anti apathy policy to stop us getting involved
with individuals or organisations engaged in circular
rhetoric. I wanted to set up an organisation that would
have realistic, attainable, although admittedly challenging,
goals. The right for African British equality is that
goal. The right to focus uncompromisingly and unapologetically,
on the reclaiming of our status as African people and
connection with other Africans in the diasporia and
in Africa is also integral to what we do.
One of the ways we have started to
do this is by reclaiming ‘African’ as our
name and abolishing the western concept of ‘black’.
It is one of our more controversial moves that has led
to some heated debate! Essentially, the label 'black'
is not the correct name for peoples of African ancestry
and British nationality. ‘African British’,
our replacement name for ‘black’, acts as
a bridge that unites British born Diasporic Africans
with our cultural and historical home. Ironically, the
people that oppose this change also oppose the term
‘negro’ which is just another word for 'black'!
‘Black’ as a label disassociates
African people with their homeland just as 'n*gger'
did when used and promoted by Western slave traders.
Some people feel that it doesn’t matter but as
our rich history shows, language plays a very important
part in our identity. If it doesn’t matter what
we call ourselves, then we might as well still allow
ourselves to be defined as ‘coloureds’ or
even ‘negros’, all of which were created
with the same meaning as the label ‘black’.
Not only that, but the label ‘black’ traditionally
encompasses all groups that are not of a European background.
Ligali exists to tackle the distinct problems related
to the African British community. We do not believe
in the monolithic one-solution fits all approach.
During a high profile public event,
a well-known community figure called out to me and declared
to all passer-by's that I was ‘the angry black
man’. Initially, it bothered me that a fellow
African Briton male would throw that tired old stereotype
in my direction. However, it reminded me of one of the
many reasons why Ligali was created; apathy, ignorance
and passivity are killing our community. As a father,
brother, partner and friend I feel a real and personal
sense of responsibility to actively fight for equal
rights and the mental and spiritual recovery of our
community. If my passion is indeed mistaken for 'anger'
in our tireless struggle to address the issues of our
children facing academic failure and fellow Brothas
and Sistas are dying in and out of police custody then
I embrace that anger as a positive force accompanied
by integrity, passion and a sense of justice to be converted
into action and… No More Talk.
Peace
Toyin Agbetu
Ligali Founder
www.ligali.org
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