censorship

magicmonkey

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A sad story in the life of a vibrant comunity here in Oxford. Cowley is the 'ethnic melting pot' of the city and always full of vibrance and a strong feel of the community (often punctuated by drunken students and other louts but what can you do?!?) This is some graffiti painted by a group of local artists who were given a wall to paint bt a local estate agent and told to do whatever they wanted with it. They painted a wonderful scene and wrote some wonderful words which were relevantto the comminuty at large and had a great deal of support on the day of painting, the next day they arrived to find that the peopm had been painted over:

3rd%20World%20Debt.jpg


Here's what the poem read if you're interested:

The Myth of Third World Debt

I hear tell
that the ‘West’ claims
‘Third World’ countries
owe them a debt.

The white people them
They come to our countries
they unleash
upon we
the holocaust of slavery
the evil, parasitic, violent process
them call colonization.

What this means is
them rape Mother Africa
took her children to use as donkey
went right inside Mother Africa belly
and steal her resources
send them back home
to the ‘west’.

We the Africans,
funded the industrial revolution
with our blood, sweat, and tears and
Life.

So I don’t really understand
what the ‘west’ means
when them talk
‘bout ‘Third world debt’
I believe them have no shame
I know they full of untruth
they lie to themselves constantly
cause truth will kill them fe true.

I ask you to reconsider
who owes whom?

The west owes Africa
a debt so great
them can never
fully repay.

Though we may not say it,
don’t think we do not see it
We are silent
because white men talk too much
all in aid
of hiding the truth.

Third world debt
is a fiction of
white mans imagination.





Thanks for looking, C&C welcome as always...
 
Thats a pretty powerful poem, thank you for posting it.

I like the grafitti too, very nicely done. I think that this shot and this poem convey a deeper message, a heart and soul that is rarely seen in public because of the need to silence it. Attitudes like the one expressed in the poem are not productive to industrialized nations and the big buisness that ensues. But because of its overwhelming appeal to be silenced, we expirence something that is more true and pure to the emotions we feel at heart and have yet to relinquish (sp) to the world. In essence, it was a wonderful poem that spoke to me as I'm sure it does to others, and thank you for being a forum for this art.

-Fiona
 
Thanks Fiona, glad you liked it. I thought that the censorship added to the power of the statement being made, most people living around here know at least the jist of what was written so, fortunately, it's not just in a few bizzare media services. if you want some more info on this then have a look at indymedia
 
Now that I've seen some other pictures of this mural, nice work on the filter. The brownish tint gives a somewhat ominous air to it. I quite like it.

-Fiona
 
I should mention that the poem isn't mine, it's by Nyarai Humba and was on the mural originaly.

I think to be honest that the shots on indymedia are just snapshots with no post processing, I used a polarizing filter and added a levels layer and a curves layer in PS. I was after a bit of a warm feel to the picture really but never mind!
 
Interesting story and good capture. It'd be quite ironic if the cover up was done by a white "artist". Meh graffiti kids huh?

Rob
 
I don't think anyone actually knows who did it but there are rumours that it was in fact the estate agents as they didn't want to be connected to the racist message in there (inverted racism obviously, but just as bad!)
 
magicmonkey said:
I don't think anyone actually knows who did it but there are rumours that it was in fact the estate agents as they didn't want to be connected to the racist message in there (inverted racism obviously, but just as bad!)

Looks a bit imaginative for estate agents to me. You should keep an eye on that area - might become an interesting project to watch the to-ing and fro-ing!

Rob
 
Sorry, I meant that people think the estate agents (who commisioned the work in the first place) painted the white bit which is where the peom was...
 
Nice picture... I dont really know wether to be offended or not! Im white but not from the UK.. lol

This is an interesting topic, and im sure we could all learn something from it. But I dont like the feeling the poem gives that i'm looped in with a bunch of slave traders because im white? Its not very clear.........Its not specific enough to NOT be racist............Im assuming its all about UK leaders that have been dead for 120 years.....

If not someone clue me in? Im an genuinley interested...
 
Here is the only thing that I have to add to the conversation: Please treat this thread with care. It has the possibility to go very wrong, very quickly and if it does, some people may not remain members of the forum. That isn't a threat, it's more like an alarm to how serious this could potentially get because we will not tolerate racist slang to be thrown back and forth nor labels of any type of hatred towards each other.

Thank you. :biggrin:

*edit - If ya'll want to talk to each other about the contraversial parts of this discussion, remember that we do have a PM funtion on the forum. I wouldn't dare tell ya'll how to think... I can just ask to not have fights out in the forum. ;)
 

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