Michelle McKinney

Educator & Performer; Archivist & Librarian. I'm a proud Grandmother, finally grown into my Senegalese name - Maam Diarra (Mom Jah-ra), 'Precious Grandmother.'

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

Mark your calendars! April 30, 2023 from 4-7p at Trinosphes, SOCC (Societie of the Culturally Concerned) is celebrating Willie Bolar, one of our community's Djelis (griot or storyteller). The late Kenny "Pancho" Hagood, a great jazz vocalist of Detroit, is also being cherished.

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@Wondersofworld0 Yes

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@HistoryLivesDet Thank you for your gracious obedience to her, and know I love and appreciate her because I know her through you. Wholy One, continue to bless us all!!

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@HistoryLivesDet You have my heartfelt sympathy. Your mother is so beautiful! I love her communication with you and there are life changing thoughts in the comments surrounding her becoming an ancestor that remake my thoughts about my own mother, who is yet with us.

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@AfricanHub_ Ghana?

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@AfricanHub_ Ghana

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

I just signed this petition on OrganizeFor with @ColorOfChange. Will you join me? #O4 https://t.co/Q18pmJrcal via @ColorOfChange

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@sommerstar Blessings upon your love, health, wealth, and joy 🌹✨Love is wonderful - keep communicating!! ❤️❤️❤️

[AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY @AfricanArchives]

36 years ago today, Thomas Sankara, a revolutionary African leader, was assassinated by French imperialists.

Sankara drove out French imperialism from Burkina Faso and withdrew from IMF and made the country non-reliant on foreign aid.

He was assassinated in a coup led by his close ally, Blaise Compaoré supported by French imperialists

As far as African leadership goes, Thomas Sankara was cut from a different piece of cloth.

Here are some of his accomplishments, ONLY 4 YEARS in power (1983-87):

– He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks.
– He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.
– He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification
– He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid
– He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education.
– He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights
– He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
– He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.
– He redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient.
– He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.”
– He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance. • He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting
– In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).
– He forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.
– He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.
– As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.
– A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.
– He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen. (The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity)
– When asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied “There are seven million Thomas Sankaras.”
– An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself

🖋️if you love our content, please consider supporting our page on https://t.co/MkzBtV9AwG (follow the ko-fi page too for weekly posts roundup)

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@LaFemme_Negrita Happy 100th birthday and continuing Blessings!💝🌷

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@ViralXfun Ah. The answer will not be known unless one can discover the value of the 3-legged table . . .

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@ViralXfun 12

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@Enezator No. 3 or No. 7

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

@NoContextHumans 1

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

Women Who Drum Festival
https://t.co/zbWbNhZKKC

[Michelle McKinney @jmack411]

Mark your calendars! April 30, 2023 from 4-7p at Trinosphes, SOCC (Societie of the Culturally Concerned) is celebrating Willie Bolar, one of our community's Djelis (griot or storyteller). The late Kenny "Pancho" Hagood, a great jazz vocalist of Detroit, is also being cherished.

[Regina Carter @Regina_Carter]

I'm still reeling with excitement from all of the love, positivity, music and community from the NEA Jazz Masters Ceremony, this past weekend. I can't wait to hit the stage with my band Wednesday April 5th at 6:00p @savannahmusicfestival
Trustees Theatre