“As a representative of the Boeung Kak Lake community, 29-year-old mother Yorm Bopha is an outspoken land rights activist, and a central figure in her community’s long-running campaign against forced eviction. She cannot remember how many times she has been beaten during protests but she clearly remembers being shocked twice by electric stun batons whilst protesting peacefully. After 13 members of the BKL community were violently and arbitrarily arrested in May 2012, Yorm Bopha was at the forefront of the campaign for their release. She maintained a high profile presence at every demonstration, became a media spokesperson for the campaign, and did not shy away from publicly criticizing government officials. This new- found prominence brought with it the attention of the authorities – she was verbally threatened, harassed and intimidated. At the height of the campaign to free the imprisoned BKL representatives, police were seen singling out Yorm Bopha during protests. After one peaceful protest NGO monitors provided her with safe escort home after police were ordered to “arrest the one with the blue krama on her head” [Yorm Bopha]. Yorm Bopha is married with an 8-year-old son, Lous Lyhour. Her husband is a construction worker and her mother, divorced from her father in 1999, is a farmer in Kampong Chhnang province. In order to support the family financially Yom Bopha worked in the BKL community’s handicraft workshop. Yorm Bopha  was held in pre-trial detention at Prey Sar (Correctional Center 2, or CC2) prison in Phnom Penh before being tried on December 26, 2012 in Phnom Penh Municipal Court at 2 p.m where she faced up to five years in prison and a fine of 4 to 10 million riel (US $1,000 to US $2,500). On December 27, 2012 Yorm was sentenced to three years imprisonment for “intentional violence with aggravating circumstances.”  Unlike the cases of the 13 BKL representatives, the charges against her are not directly linked to her presence at protests and demonstrations. Instead she is held in connection with the beating of a suspected thief under article 218 of the Penal Code, but there is no doubt that the case against her is politically motivated. Human rights monitors believe that Yorm Bopha was indeed blacklisted and targeted because of her activism. She is not the first, and she will certainly not be the last.”  http://freethe15.wordpress.com/category/yorm-bopha/

“I was a young woman with an evolved mind who was not afraid of her beauty or her sexuality. For some people that’s uncomfortable. They didn’t understand how female and strong work together. Or young and wise. Or Black and divine.”

— Lauryn Hill (via jetaimerenee)

(via bubblemami)

thatneedstogo: beautone: Kelis Reading African American Science Fiction Author Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild & Other Stories I am here for this I’m here for ALLLLLLL of thisssssss YASSSSSSS
atlanticbullot: “Just about any undergraduate anthropology course is likely to begin with a ritual denunciation of early anthropology as a colonialist project, implying that anything written before, say, 1970 was hopelessly corrupted by its entanglement in racism, imperialism, and genocide. It’s always said in such a way so as imply that obviously, this is no longer the case. This excellent, timely, and beautifully researched work demonstrates just how wrong and self-serving this standard account really is. Anthropology was always a field of political struggle between servants and opponents of imperialism and it still is - with much of our funding, employment, and research direction still coming directly from the CIA and US military. No one genuinely concerned with the integrity of the discipline can afford to ignore this important book.”  –DAVID GRAEBER Goldsmiths, University of London. Author of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology Oh Goldsmiths….
fuckyeahcaribbean: Coolie Woman, Trinidad (by The Caribbean Photo Archive)

A summary of the Pathology of Mother Earth (Jeanette MacDonald) Earth People of Trinidad

What the Earthman knows

“IT was more than a decade ago when in the heat and humidity of the rainforest, Frenchman Jean Michel Gibert and his group came face to face with the earth people, a peculiar yet intriguing group of people living on the fringes of society.

Led by the enigmatic ‘Mother Earth as she was known, these people opted to live deep within Trinidad’s rainforest on the north coast while shunning the outside world or what they call the ‘system’. Meeting them was probably one of the most surreal experiences of Gibert’s life, most aspects of his encounter with them remain with him today…”