Takahiro Nanri (left – black jacket), Executive Director of Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation, joins hands with a leprosy survivor (right). Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
MANILA, Mar 5 2019 (IPS) – Takahiro Nanri is the Executive Director of Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation which has been supporting the global fight against leprosy for almost five decades. Since 2014, Nanri has been leading the foundation’s leprosy projects across the world and has deep insights into the challenges faced by the people affected by leprosy as well as the organisations that work with them.
He also shares the dream of Yohei Sasakawa – the chairman of Nippon Foundation – to see a leprosy-free world and believes that despite several challenges and roadblocks, this dream is indeed possible to realise.
In an exclusive interview with IPS, Nanri talks about the idea behind the regional assembly of leprosy-affected people in Asia that was held in Manila.
He also tells how people who are affected by leprosy are treated as social outcasts and why they must be integrated with the rest of the society. Finally, Nanri shares his views on how and why leprosy-affected people’s organisations should become sustainable. Excerpts of the interview follow:
Takahiro Nanri is the Executive Director of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation which has been supporting the global fight against leprosy for five decades. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
Inter Press Service (IPS): Is there a reason behind Mr Sasakawa’s personal interest in leprosy? Why has the foundation continued even when it is not a big global threat anymore?
Takahiro Nanri (TN): As far as I know it was in the 1960s [when the Sasakawa family] visited leprosariums in some countries like Korea, South Korea, Nepal and at that time there was no Multidrug Therapy ( MDT) and the situation in the sanatoriums was very severe. So they had decided to fight against leprosy and launched the leprosy elimination programme and even established the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation.
I am very proud of the fact that this foundation has continued to work on the same issue for 50 years because, although compared to other diseases, this may have decreased, but there is still no end to leprosy.
IPS: How long have you been working on leprosy and what has been your biggest observation?
TN: I have been working on leprosy since 2014. But I have been working on poverty issues for the past 25 years. People affected by leprosy are really poor. So, working for leprosy is in a way working on poverty too. Several years ago, there was the concept of the bottom of the pyramid; and we talked of the people living at the bottom of the pyramid and how to uplift them. We talked of using microfinance, social business approach etc. But I have realised that the people living with leprosy are actually living outside of the pyramid. That is why I feel integration is very, very important.
IPS: How did you come up with the idea of the Regional Assembly of Organisations of Leprosy- Affected People in Asia?
TN: Last September, we had a small meeting. We invited and had a discussion with some of the people’s organisations from India, Indonesia, Brazil and Ethiopia on what could be done. This September, there will be the World Congress on Leprosy where there will be academics, experts, governments. The congress is a crucial event but often organisations of the affected people are left behind. So, we came up with the idea of organising a pre-congress event where the affected people’s organisations so that it can also be a way for preparing themselves for the congress.
IPS: Why is sustainability still such a big issue for organisations of leprosy–affected people?
TN: Sustainability is not only an issue of leprosy affected people, but also for all the NGOs of the world. I don’t really have an answer here. It depends on each organisation, each leader. Every NGO, every organisation has to find its own way and its own strategy to sustain itself. Should they approach foundations, survive on external grants, seek membership fees, donations , do social business—it’s up to them. As foundations we can provide financial grant, but not forever. What we can do, however, is think together on what could be the next step.
IPS: There are many hidden cases in the world of leprosy. Can you share an example of a good action by a government that tried to act on this.
TN: In India, the government made a very brave decision. In 2016 they started a campaign to identify the endemic leprosy cases all over the country. And since then, every year, they do case detection camps. It has brought in the open many new cases that were previously hidden. It also resulted in an increase in the number of leprosy cases in the country, but after that it started to decrease as the cases were treated . So, this is an example I feel other governments can also follow.
IPS: How are you feeling now that the assembly has concluded?
TN: My expectation is very simple: this venue is for the people affected by leprosy. They should be able to discuss whatever they want to and decide whatever they want to decide. Here, we saw is they are trying to be more pro-active, opening up,coming up with some issues, some ideas on how they can strengthen their partnership, soI am happy.
Approximately three billion people around the world depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods as fisheries alone generates over 360 billion dollars to the global economy. However, human activity continues to threaten this crucial landscape including through overfishing. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 5 2019 (IPS) – Over recent years, there have been shocking reports of marine endangerment and plastic pollution. The threats are clear, and now urgent action is needed more than ever.
Marking World Wildlife Day on Mar. 3 with its theme “Life below water”, the United Nations has stressed the need to promote and sustain ocean conservation not simply to protect underwater life, but also societies.
“‘Life below water’ may sound far away from our daily life; a subject best left to scientists and marine biologists; but it is anything but,” said President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
“Increasingly we are coming to understand how connected our world is and how much impact our actions are having on the oceans, on the rivers and waterways, and in turn on the wildlife, above and below water, that have come to rely on them,” she added.
Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Ivonne Higuero echoed similar sentiments, stating: “When we think about wildlife, most of us picture elephants, rhinos, and tigers…but we should not forget about life below water and the important contribution they make to sustainable development, as enshrined in Goal 14 of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.”
The oceans and its critters have been among the foundations of human societies. Approximately three billion people around the world depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods as fisheries alone generates over 360 billion dollars to the global economy.
More than that, oceans help regulate the climate, producing 50 percent of the world’s oxygen and absorbing 30 percent of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
Yet, human activity continues to threaten this crucial landscape including through overfishing.
According to the U.N., around 30 percent of fish stocks are overexploited, often at unsustainable levels. While some policies are in place to reduce overfishing, illegal fishing is still commonplace.
Illegal and unregulated fishing constitutes an estimated 12 to 30 percent of fishing worldwide.
For instance, the high prices of caviar has fuelled illegal overfishing and near extinction of species of sturgeon and paddlefish.
Espinosa particularly pointed to the issue of plastic pollution in oceans which has become a growing concern worldwide.
“Every minute a garbage truck worth of plastic makes its way to the sea. Some of this plastic remains in its original form, while much more is broken down into microplastics that are consumed by fish and other creatures, eventually finding their way into our own food, our own water,” she said.
“This is not the way we treat our home, our planet. This is not the way we maintain a sustainable and healthy ecosystem,” Espinosa added.
An estimated 5 to 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year and many have ended up on the beaches of the world’s most isolated islands and others in the guts of whales and sea turtles.
Even in the 7-mile deep Mariana Trench, research found all specimens had plastic in their gut.
According to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the oceans could have more plastic than fish by 2050 if current trends continue.
But through the dark clouds, there is a glimmer of hope as civil society organisations, U.N. agencies, and governments band together to protect oceans.
Launched by U.N. Environment (UNEP), the Clean Seas campaign is now the world’s largest global alliance for combating marine plastic pollution with commitments covering over 60 percent of the world’s coastlines.
The 57 countries who have joined the campaign have pledged to cut back on single-use plastics and encourage more recycling.
Already, many governments have taken up the challenge.
In December, Peru decided to phase out single-use plastic bags over the next three years.
In the U.S., cities such as Seattle and Washington, D.C. have implemented a ban on plastic straws and businesses could receive fines if they continue to offer the items.
Though this makes up only a small fraction of the marine plastic pollution issue, such low-hanging fruit seems to be the best place to start.
International non-profit organisation Global Fishing Watch has established an online platform where they record and publish data on the activity of fishing boats, providing a map of hot spots where overfishing might occur and who is responsible.
After recording data on more than 40 million hours of fishing in 2016 alone, they found that just five countries and territories including China, Spain, and Japan account for more than 85 percent of observed fishing.
The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), on the other hand, has utilised a rights-based management approach, working directly with fishermen who receive a secure “catch share” upon complying to strict limits that allow fish populations to rebuild.
This approach has helped combat the issue of overfishing, which has dropped 60 percent since 2000 in the United States, and provides stable fishing jobs with increased revenue.
For instance, EDF worked with fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico where red snapper stocks were overexploited and continually declined. Scientists determined a sustainable threshold to catch red snapper which was then divided into shares and allocated to the fishermen.
With strict limits as to how much to fish, the red snapper population quickly flourished and by 2013, it was taken off the “avoid” list organised by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Higuero also highlighted the role CITES which regulates international trade in marine species, ensuring it is sustainable and legal.
“Well-managed and sustainable international trade greatly contributes to livelihoods and the conservation of marine species…we are all striving to achieve the same objective of sustainability: for people and planet – where wildlife, be it terrestrial or marine, can thrive in the wild while also benefiting people,” she said.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed to the importance of marine life for current and future societies.
“Marine species provide indispensable ecosystem services…let us raise awareness about the extraordinary diversity of marine life and the crucial importance of marine species to sustainable development. That way, we can continue to provide these services for future generations,” he said.
Work-study students, interns, and volunteers of the High Atlas Foundation have opportunities to analyze development as it is experienced in rural and urban communities, by farmers, women, youth, and people of all backgrounds. We also give the students and volunteers the encouragement and support that they need in order to write their observations, improve upon their writing, and to share their work with the public.
This Newsletter is composed of the published articles by HAF’s work-study students, volunteers, and interns. We hope that you find them informative and inspiring. We also hope that you visit HAF and take this opportunity to assist people’s development, research and analyze their situations and how conditions at national and international levels impact people’s lives, and write about it for a global audience. You can now do this and more and receive college credit through the University of Virginia.
These articles that are published in outlets around the world are important not only in regards to the professional growth of the young writers, but because they share the perspectives of the people about whom they are writing, and advocate positions and policies that advance sustainable growth in Morocco and beyond.
We hope to see you in Marrakech as a visiting (and writing) member of HAF’s team.
Yossef Ben-Meir, Ph.D. President High Atlas Foundation yossef@highatlasfoundation.org
Jelani Cobb: “Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, the Black Panther and the King of Wakanda, confronts Erik Killmonger, a black American mercenary, played by Michael B. Jordan, as a rival, but the two characters are essentially duelling responses to five centuries of African exploitation at the hands of the West. The villain, to the extent that the term applies, is history itself.” Karen Attiah: “Indeed, ´Black Panther´ offers a radical vision of what black national power and internationalism could look like, if we trusted, respected, and elevated black women … In ´Black Panther,´ as in real life, black women be saving ev-ery-body, white or black.”
Although it did not win the best picture award*, “Black Panther” won three Academy Awards this year, for costume design, production design and musical score. Its cultural as well as commercial success is undeniable. In addition, if there were a ´most thoughtprovoking ´ film award, it would have clearly been the top contender. A superhero film is not intended to be a portrayal of reality. But the film offered, and still offers, multiple opportunities to explore deep historical questions.
* Despite an inspired nomination speech by Trevor Noah, which included a joke only understandable to speakers of Xhosa! https://twitter.com/i/status/1099885201788948481 For more explanation visit http://tinyurl.com/y2y5mmzr
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from seven commentaries from a year ago, particularly noteworthy for their focus on the implications for understanding the history of Africa and the African diaspora. Karen Attiah is a Nigerian-Ghanaian-American, Boima Tucker a Sierra-Leonean-American, Jelani Cobb, Christopher Lebron, and Robyn Spencer are African-American, Thandika Mkandawire and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza are both from Malawi, and live in Sweden and Kenya respectively.
A related AfricaFocus Bulletin also sent out today and available on the web at http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/usa1902b.php, introduces a selection of books and articles exploring in greater depth the wider historical context to which the discussions about ´Black Panther´ point. These include slavery and the Atlantic slave trade, the genocidal conquest of the Americas, and the complex issue or reparations or redress for historical crimes the impact of which still shapes our world today.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on the USA and Africa,visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/usa-africa.php
—Editor’s Note-
Selected Reflections on “Black Panther”
Karen Attiah, “Forget Killmonger — Wakanda’s women are ‘Black Panther’s’ true revolutionaries,” Washington Post, March 1, 2018
http://tinyurl.com/yxgxp7wh
Most of the intellectually interesting — and heated — discussions about “Black Panther” have been about whether the film’s representations of black liberation, internationalism, and imperialism are empowering, or regressive.
As a black woman and the daughter of West African immigrants, the most tragic and scary part about Killmonger and his imperialist vision is that he does not hesitate to sacrifice black women in pursuit of it.
In his blood-soaked quest to seize Wakanda, he leaves behind a trail of dead and injured black women, both American and Wakandan. He kills his African-American girlfriend and partner in crime. He chokes the female priestess of the purple heart-shaped herbs that give Wakanda’s rulers spiritual access to the ancestors. Later in the film, he slices the throat of a member of the all-female royal guards, the Dora Milaje. And, if it wasn’t for T’Challa’s intervention in the grand battle scene, he might have killed T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri, the genius responsible for Wakanda’s technological achievements, including the same vibranium-powered weapons that Killmonger wants to ship to oppressed black peoples around the world. …
And this is the true tragedy of Killmonger — in his trauma-fueled quest for dominance, he does not represent black liberation — rather, he symbolizes the internalization of white patriarchy — which manifests in his external violence against black women.
Indeed, “Black Panther” offers a radical vision of what black national power and internationalism could look like, if we trusted, respected, and elevated black women — especially in maledominated fields such as the military and international diplomacy.
In “Black Panther,” as in real life, black women be saving ev-ery-body, white or black.
3-minute interview with Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Lupita Nyong’o – http://tinyurl.com/y36vl86m
Boima Tucker, “African America’s Wakanda,” Africa is a Country, Feb. 23, 2018.
It’s too soon to tell if this specific cultural moment has done anything to bring African Americans closer to Africans on the continent and its many other diasporas. It doesn’t help that Black Panther’s depiction of the actual African continent is not any more complex than any other in the history of Hollywood. True, in the film African cultures are represented and depicted positively. We have come a long way from Birth of a Nation. However, those cultures are also used piecemeal, cut-and-paste and without context. The only time we see the Wakandans visit another African country it is of course to fight militant Islamists who are kidnapping children. The Africa of Wakanda resembles more an undifferentiated African stew, its parts floating in the red, black and green universe somewhere between Kwanza and Kente.
…
The arrival of Black Panther arrives at a time when black America is diversifying. But it also happens to be a time where the US itself is becoming more isolationist. I know from personal experience that it is not beyond many in the African American community to reflect nativist tendencies. In private conversations, I have heard African Americans say things like “The Muslim-ban protest isn’t my fight” or “What does DACA have to do with me?”
In a perfect world, Black Panther fever would lead more African Americans down a path of knowledge that would inform them that African migrants are crossing oceans, deserts and jungles on foot to get in to the US. That Haitians and African migrants are flooding the Canadian border out of fear of being deported by a xenophobic Trump administration. That Black Lives Matter applies to a mudslide in Sierra Leone or miners killed by police in South Africa. That there is a real life ethno-nationalist, technologically advanced isolationist dictatorship, in Paul Kagame’s Rwanda. That their tax dollars are going to build a giant drone base in Niger. That this knowledge would help open them to a Pan-African political project.
Jelani Cobb, “‘Black Panther’ and the Invention of ‘Africa'” The New Yorker, Feb. 18, 2018
http://tinyurl.com/ydb82dcs
There is a fundamental dissonance in the term “African-American,” two feuding ancestries conjoined by a hyphen. That dissonance—a hyphen standing in for the brutal history that intervened between Africa and America—is the subject of “Black Panther,” Ryan Coogler’s brilliant first installment of the story of Marvel Comics’ landmark black character. “I have a lot of pain inside me,” Coogler told an audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, on Wednesday night. “We were taught that we lost the things that made us African. We lost our culture, and now we have to make do with scraps.” Black America is constituted overwhelmingly by the descendants of people who were not only brought to the country against their will but were later inducted into an ambivalent form of citizenship without their input. The Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to all those born here, supposedly resolved the question of the status of ex-slaves, though those four million individuals were not consulted in its ratification. The unspoken yield of this history is the possibility that the words “African” and “American” should not be joined by a hyphen but separated by an ellipsis.
…
Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, the Black Panther and the King of Wakanda, confronts Erik Killmonger, a black American mercenary, played by Michael B. Jordan, as a rival, but the two characters are essentially duelling responses to five centuries of African exploitation at the hands of the West. The villain, to the extent that the term applies, is history itself.
…
it is all but impossible not to notice that Coogler has cast a black American, a Zimbabwean-American, and a Kenyan as a commando team in a film about African redemption. The cast also includes Winston Duke, who is West Indian; Daniel Kaluuya, a black Brit; and Florence Kasumba, a Ugandan-born German woman. The implicit statement in both the film’s themes and its casting is that there is a connection, however vexed, tenuous, and complicated, among the continent’s scattered descendants. Coogler said as much in Brooklyn, when he talked about a trip that he took to South Africa, as research for the film: after discovering cultural elements that reminded him of black communities in the United States, he concluded, “There’s no way they could wipe out what we were for thousands of years. We’re African.”
Christopher Lebron, “‘Black Panther’ Is Not the Movie We Deserve,” Boston Review, Feb. 18, 2018
http://tinyurl.com/y8rvz4vx
Black Panther presents itself as the most radical black experience of the year. We are meant to feel emboldened by the images of T’Challa, a black man clad in a powerful combat suit tearing up the bad guys that threaten good people. But the lessons I learned were these: the bad guy is the black American who has rightly identified white supremacy as the reigning threat to black wellbeing; the bad guy is the one who thinks Wakanda is being selfish in its secret liberation; the bad guy is the one who will no longer stand for patience and moderation—he thinks liberation is many, many decades overdue. And the black hero snuffs him out.
When T’Challa makes his way to Oakland at the movie’s end, he gestures at all the buildings he has bought and promises to bring to the distressed youths the preferred solution of mega-rich neoliberals: educational programming. Don’t get me wrong, education is a powerful and liberating tool, as Paulo Freire taught us, but is that the best we can do? Why not take the case to the United Nations and charge the United States with crimes against humanity, as some nations tried to do in the early moments of the Movement for Black Lives?
Robyn C. Spencer, “Black Feminist Meditations on the Women of Wakanda,” Medium, Feb. 21, 2018
http://tinyurl.com/yy4cg56l
Killmonger is a monarch seeking a throne, a familiar figure in the history of Black protest. Despite his flawed ideas and violent actions as a CIA operative, he is presented as having a redeemable vision of Black futurity. The struggle between T’Challa’s way and Killmonger’s alternative have fueled some of the most provocative think pieces about the meaning of the movie to Black history and politics. However, it is the women of Wakanda who have offered the most justice centered view of what Wakanda can mean in the world. Black Panther” reflects a deep, global and collective hunger for cultural products that represent people of African descent with dignity and power, but that doesn’t mean that one has to swallow everything uncritically. There is potential in this moment. Activists have raised awareness about the 1960s Black Panther Party, rallied for support for political prisoners and held voter registration drives at movie screenings. Fewer have asked why the African future—as imagined in “Black Panther”—and the African past—as sold by ancestry.com—is so much more appealing to some Americans than the African present. There is no better time to launch critical conversations about what liberation could look like; connect new people to pre-existing organizations and political networks; re-center aesthetics in freedom making projects and have some frank transnational diasporic dialogue.
Perhaps the best thing about “Black Panther” is that it grounds these conversations in intergenerational soil. The day after the film, I will ask my daughter to use the tools of Black feminism to re-imagine Wakanda. How should it be organized, run and led? Could she think beyond monarchy and create an alternative system of governance based on values like egalitarianism and collectivity? How might she redistribute, rather than hoard, the wealth of Wakanda for the greater good? What would she do with Killmonger, who at the end finally grasps the splendor of Wakanda yet is incapable of imagining that it had evolved beyond imprisoning vanquished enemies. (A burning question in a country where 2.3 million people are incarcerated.) Most of all, I will ask her about her favorite thinkers and suggest that the women of Wakanda might be the leaders that we have been calling for.
Thandika Mkandawire, Facebook post, March 14, 2018
http://tinyurl.com/y66oqr35
When Africa’s sagging pan-Africanist spirits are their nadir, its Diaspora has stood up to remind us of the dream – from William Blyden, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, W.E.B Dubois, and, of course, Bob Marley “Africa’s Must Unite”.
The history of pan-Africanism is characterized by seesaw-like shifts in emphasis as continental or Diasporic issues have become dominant. In Africa, as elsewhere, Diasporas have played an important role in the reinvention and revitalisation of the “homeland” identity and sense of itself. And today, with the increased capacity to participate in the political life of their homelands, there can be no doubt that the Diaspora will be even more immediate to the rethinking of a new Africa.
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The sheer size of the continent and the dispersion of peoples of African descent has meant that the pan-Africanist project has had to come to terms with a wide range of identities, interests and concerns which include gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, race and geographical allocation, to only name some major one. However, as I have said on several occasions, I do not believe that the failure of pan-Africanism can be attributed to lack of identification with Africa by Africans chauvinistically mired in their diverse identities, as it is often stated. Nor is it because individual countries have firmly established successful national identities that somehow militate against the pan-African ideal.
“Africa” is probably the most emotionally evoked name of any continent. Its people sing about it, paint it, and wear it more than any continent. Its artists produce hundreds of icons of this much “beloved continent”. Every major African singer has at least sang one song about Africa. Even national anthems often evoke Africa much more than individual country names.
This said we need all the cultural reinforcement to the panAfrican project. Black Panther has contributed in a spectacular way to the cultural underpinnings and imaginary of pan-Africanism.
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, “Black Panther and the Persistence of the Colonial Gaze,” Pulse, March 31, 2018
http://tinyurl.com/y2fscfvq
Thus the film bears the great weight of racial representation, of the brilliant possibilities of the past, present and future for African peoples on the continent and in the Diaspora. This is a burden it carries because of the paucity of Black films in Hollywood and one that it ultimately fails to uphold because it’s too much for one film to bear.
While I found the film interesting even engrossing in parts I was underwhelmed. In fact, I left the theater quite troubled by the pervasive tropes of colonial discourse that frame the film despite its eagerness to invoke a progressive Pan-African aesthetic.
The tropes of the colonial gaze are signaled at the outset. We are told Wakanda is a ‘tribal’ nation-state. None of Africa’s major precolonial states—from the ancient Nile valley civilizations to the great empires of Western Africa, not to mention others elsewhere on the continent—were ‘tribal’ states; they were multiethnic or to use contemporary terms multi-cultural and multinational states and societies. And contemporary African states, formed out of the historical geography of European colonialism, are almost invariably multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multireligious.
The term ‘tribe’ is the ‘N’ word of colonial denigration for African societies. There is nothing authentic or liberating about referring to African communities as ‘tribal,’ a term that evokes atavistic identities and primordial politics.
The representations of Wakanda reek with other Eurocentric stereotypes. The accession to and defense of the throne are marked by ferocious and bloody fights. The contestation between the king of Wakanda, T’Challa, the Black Panther, and his estranged African American cousin and interloper, Erik Kilmonger, degenerates into the ‘inter-tribal’ warfare of colonial folklore, together with the Tarzanian animalistic chants by the neighboring kingdom that comes to intervene. There are also the shields and spears and gyrations of old Hollywood films about ‘tribal’ African warfare.
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In other words, despite all its best counter-hegemonic efforts, Wakanda’s Africa is quintessentially sub-Saharan Africa, the truncated Africa of Eurocentric cartography, of Europe’s ultimate other. Black Panther offers us an Afrocentric projection of an Africa invented by the racialized and racist realities and rhetoric of American history and society. It is not a reflection of the bewildering complexities, contradictions, and diversities of Africa itself.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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It’s still winter in America, with downtown Milwaukee lined by banks of dirty snow, but there is sunshine in this room. Donald Trump remains in office, as anger and disillusion festers, but Malcolm Brogdon defies these downbeat days. Fiery eloquence and hope pour out of the NBA’s 2017 Rookie of the Year who plays for the most exciting basketball team in America. The Milwaukee Bucks lead the Eastern Conference and have the best record in the league.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, a 6ft 11in Greek immigrant of Nigerian descent, is the Bucks’ exhilarating star who now bears comparison with LeBron James and Steph Curry. But Brogdon is the steady heart of this young team. Antetokounmpo is called the Greek Freak while Brogdon’s stately nickname is The President. Having come late to the pro ranks after completing his post-graduate degree, the 26-year-old talks with the resolve of a man destined for more important matters than his current drive to help the Bucks become NBA champions for only the second time in their five-decade history – and the first since a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in their fold.
“It speaks to America as a whole,” Brogdon says as he considers the perennial question of race in a country where Trump sits in the White House. “We’ve elected someone who allows hatred and racism to continue and, in some way, supports it. It was shocking when we put him in office but having him there has allowed everyone to see what people in the country really feel. Now we can rebuild the country properly. It’s about electing someone that unites people and supports progressive ideas. We no longer need a president who tries to destroy people.”
Brogdon, a quietly impassioned orator, pauses. “It’s ironic because, while Trump tries to break people down and tear them apart, he’s brought so many of us together. This is especially true for the black community. One of our main problems is that, after the Civil Rights movement, black people did not look after each other. But having Trump in office has brought us together.”
Malcolm Brogdon’s Bucks have the best record in the NBA this season, outperforming the likes of Kyrie Irving’s Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference. Photograph: Aaron Gash/AP
An hour-long conversation with Brogdon is very different to a routine sports interview. I am struck by the cool intelligence and defiant optimism that surges through him and can understand why a superstar like Antetokounmpo has stressed his teammate’s nickname is not a joke – but echoes a belief among the Bucks that they could have a giant of a man in their midst.
Brogdon takes a difficult subject such as racism and turns it over to find something new to say. “It builds mental toughness. It builds character. It builds identity. From a young age you figure out I can be a smart, articulate, educated black man and still identify as an African American. I’m named after Malcolm X and Malcolm always said: ‘If you don’t have education then you have no future.’ My parents are huge Malcolm X fans and raised me according to his guidelines.
“But I went to a school [in Atlanta] where many racist situations occurred. The basketball was pretty racist; the classroom was very racist. The teachers were so blatant in their targeting based on colour. I went to a private school and I only had one or two black friends. We were always the ones in detention. My mom knew to get me out of there. But I’d go to basketball practice with my black friends, in my neighbourhood, and me and my brothers were called white because we went to private school and were articulate.”
His father, Mitchell, is a lawyer, while Brogdon’s mother, Jann Adams, is the former chair of the psychology department at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, among the most famous of America’s historically black colleges and universities. She is now the associate dean of the science and maths department. “I was lucky I had a mom who had seen it all. From seeing my grandfather march in the Civil Rights era, she understood the depth, character and stability you need to go through racism. She taught me not to accept it to but deal with it, and be better than it. My mom grew up in Waco, Texas, when the KKK was still prominent. She remembers them burning crosses in the front yard. The racism was palpable every day.”
Brogdon tells me the remarkable story of how his parents made the decision, when he and his two brothers were still young, to move the family out of a middle-class neighbourhood. “We moved into inner-city Atlanta. It was a developing neighbourhood but it was lower income. It was one of the best moves my parents ever made. It was a conscious decision on their part to make sure we grew up with an understanding of what other people had to go through.”
His parents also took their boys to Africa, on a three-week trip to Ghana where, instead of a vacation, they worked in day-care and maternity centres. While playing soccer with barefoot local kids, Brogdon realised how fortunate his family were in comparison to most people. “I have great memories from childhood. Of course the divorce, when I was 11, was tough. But my mom, especially, did a great job in raising us. She rooted us in black environments while situating us in private school. We tasted both sides.”
There was a basketball court just behind Brogdon’s backyard in Atlanta and his face lights up at a surreal memory. “We had crackheads, all types of users, coming by the court. We befriended all of them. They would come play with us. My mom saw no danger. She thought it was a great environment for us to learn how to be with different people. They knew our names, we knew their names. We had fun every day.
The Bucks’ new practice facility is adjacent to their stadium in downtown Milwaukee. Photograph: Adam Jason Cohen/The Guardian
“I learnt that drug users could be good people too. They had just gone down a wrong path. It’s easy to dismiss people but my grandfather taught us to think differently. He marched with Dr Martin Luther King and to this day my grandmother is great friends with Andrew Young [a King confidant who became the US Ambassador to the United Nations]. It was a blessing and a privilege to have my grandfather – a giant among men.”
As a kid did Brogdon believe a career in the NBA was impossible? “My parents never planted the seed that anything was impossible. They planted the seed that things were doubly hard for a black man. My brothers and I made sure we outworked people and were better than everyone we were around.”
Brogdon smiles. “Anyway, I really wanted to play professional soccer. I loved Arsenal and Thierry Henry. Soccer is still my favourite sport. I was a striker – like Henry. But things changed when I got to the ninth grade. My brother was always playing basketball and I wanted to be more like him. I wanted to be around more black people.”
We discuss my interview last year with Jaylen Brown, of the Boston Celtics, another impressive young NBA player. It was rumoured that an unnamed executive said Brown was “too smart” – a euphemism for being too educated and political. “Absolutely. Me and Jaylen went through the same [2016] draft. I went into draft interviews and they would say: ‘You went to college for four years, and got your master’s in your fifth year. Are you sure you want to be an NBA player? Don’t you want to go into politics?’ It seems as if you’re black you can’t be both educated and a sportsman. I’d rather they said: ‘You showed so much dedication and perseverance in your studies we know you will show it on the court.’”
It does not sound like an isolated incident. “There were multiple teams. But it’s not disheartening. It’s empowering and a chance for me to break the mould for younger black athletes get their degree, their master’s, and come into the NBA and shock the world.”
Malcolm Brogdon is full of praise for his All-Star teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo. Photograph: Jeffrey Phelps/AP
Brogdon still believes that “the NBA is the most progressive league out there. I’ve been a bit surprised, and encouraged, by the NBA’s support for athletes that speak out. Compared to the NFL it’s night and day. Look at the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick [who was shut out of football after he refused to stand for the national anthem]. Kaepernick is a hero. When you talk about Malcolm X and Dr King the word that comes to mind is sacrifice. Colin Kaepernick is the epitome of that sacrifice in our generation. I love it that black athletes are now willing to speak out. It’s inspiring.”
The Bucks have been inspiring on court. At their new arena, the stunning Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, I saw them demolish the Dallas Mavericks. With Antetokounmpo and Brogdon in full flow, it’s easy to imagine the Bucks facing the Golden State Warriors, the imperious champions, in June’s NBA finals.
“Absolutely,” Brogdon says. “We have a phenomenal coach [Mike Budenholzer] and a phenomenal system. We have guys with little ego and a superstar, Giannis, who is top five in the league. We have great role players behind him. You can’t get a better recipe than that – unless you’re Golden State. But we’ve already beaten them this season [the Bucks won easily in Oakland, in November, with Brogdon scoring 20 points]. I’m living my dream and playing in the NBA. But the next level of the dream is to win a championship. It’s something very few NBA guys do – so it would be amazing.”
The Bucks new state of the art practice facitilty is adjacent to their brand new stadium in downtown Milwaukee. Photograph: Adam Jason Cohen/The Guardian
He laughs when asked what it’s like to play with Antetokounmpo. “Giannis does so many amazing things on the floor. A lot of time you just watch him play – like the fans. Sometimes you just have to get out of the way, and let him do his thing. For six or seven minutes, long stretches, he dominates. There are times when he needs support but Giannis attracts so much attention that often all you have to do is stand on the perimeter and shoot at the ring – or cut to the basket and score a lay off. He makes the game easy for us.”
Peter Feigin, the Bucks’ charismatic president, is a New Yorker who offended many locals in 2016 when he said Milwaukee is “the most segregated and racist place” he had known. Was Brogdon surprised? “Not at all. Before I came to Milwaukee I’d heard the city was the most segregated in the country. I’d heard it was racist. When I got here it was extremely segregated. I’ve never lived in a city this segregated. Milwaukee’s very behind in terms of being progressive. There are things that need to change rapidly.”
Is this an opportunity to change Milwaukee? “Absolutely. Leadership and change starts from the top down – with our owners being progressive. They encourage players that also want to be forward thinking. For them to support Peter Feigin is a big sign and encourages us to do the same. To speak out for what is good and right.”
Is Milwaukee, agog with the brilliance of the Greek Freak and teammates like Brogdon, already changing? “It’s amazing how sports is a way to control the masses. But it also unites people. When you have a team on the rise, with a player like Giannis, it brings the city together. The owners, and Peter Feigin, have trademarked the team as something the city can really get behind as a progressive unit.”
Before he won Rookie of the Year, Brogdon persuaded the Bucks to divert all the money they had earmarked for his campaign to charity. “I thought my play would speak for itself and all the money put into that should go to something more important. The award is superficial. It’s more important to give back when you can.”
Brodgon’s master’s thesis was on the necessity for clean water in rural South Africa. “When I first went to Africa, aged 11, it was the trip of a lifetime. It ignited a fire in me. I saw people less privileged than me. But they were still happy – even if they didn’t have clean water. They didn’t have food to eat. They were starving to death. From then on I wanted to make a change.
“I went on a mission trip with my grandparents – to Malawi – when I was 14. Malawi was far worse off than Ghana. It was mind-boggling that people don’t have clean water. And then an opportunity arose. During my thesis I was looking for an organisation I could work with. And there happened to be one based in Charlottesville. I worked with them on my thesis, went out [to South Africa] for nine days and it was the best trip I’ve ever taken.”
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Brogdon is the founder of Hoop2o which, last October, he and four other NBA players launched to help people benefit from clean water in Tanzania. By late January they had raised $125,000 and built two wells which now provide water to 11,000 people. Brogdon also works with the NFL player Chris Long, who started Waterboys – an initiative that funds 55 wells and provides clean water to 210,000 people in Africa. Their aim is for their wells to reach a million people – as a child in Africa dies every 90 seconds from a water-related disease.
“Clean water allows little girls traveling miles to school to get an education,” he adds. “It allows them not to be eaten by animals when they’re trying to get water.”
Did he know Long, one of the most politically conscious white sportsmen in America, when they both went to the University of Virginia? “I didn’t as he’s about [seven] years older than me. I just heard great things about him. Chris is totally aware of what’s happening in America and the world and he’s amazing.”
“That’s not my experience of Charlottesville,” Brogdon says, “but it was a powerful reminder of racism and prejudice. I see the news, I read, and there’s so much hatred and violence.”
Trump initially refused to comment on Charlottesville – and when he did speak the President praised the “many fine people on both sides”. Despite the constant accusations swirling around Trump, many Americans believe he will be re-elected. “It’s very realistic,” Brogdon says of that bleak possibility. “It’s very discouraging. But the focus has to be on getting the minorities, especially African Americans, voting. We have a history of not voting. But people died for our right to vote. We must get out and vote and change the outcome of these future elections.”
What will Brodgon be doing in 10 years? “I’ll be finding something that will impact people’s lives. I’d like to stay in the non-profit sector whether it’s clean water or fighting poverty. I have a passion for Africa and I would love to continue to use my resources to help others.”
Is politics too dirty a business? “No, it’s not too dirty. There are good people in politics that are doing great work. But is a business where there is dirt. If I want to get into that I have to be ready to take on every aspect – including politicking. It’s similar to the NBA. You have to fight for what you want. I need to decide if I want another career like that because, by that time, I’ll have kids. But it’s possible.”
How did his presidential nickname arise? “That came up when President Obama was in office. People said I spoke like him and looked like him. I was articulate and had my master’s degree. People started to call me The President.”
Brogdon, who will surely do even more in life than chase down an NBA championship in Milwaukee, smiles when asked if he likes his nickname. “I love it – as long as you know the context. We need context for everything.”
This winter, Columbia trustees voted to confirm the creation of the African American and African Diaspora Studies department, which will bring a fresh approach to the discipline at a crucial moment in race relations and black identity within our society.
“Now, more than ever, we need to have both an understanding of that history,” said Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin, the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies, who will lead the department as its first chair. “The creation of this department at Columbia is right on time because our nation and our world need the kind of knowledge we produce.”
First on the agenda is adding to the faculty and developing a Ph.D. program.
Work-study students, interns, and volunteers of the 
