A Diaspora Connection

On By thewriterfredIn Black Culture, Black History, San Antonio, TX2 Comments

On Tuesday, April 21, 2015, San Antonio, Texas scored another first in its history when the city entered into a Friendship City Agreement with Windhoek, the capital of the Republic of Namibia. I not only felt honored but thrilled to be invited to witness this event in the plush Plaza Club on the top floor of the Frost Bank Building here in San Antonio.

San Antonio Mayor and Namibia Mayor Muesee Kazapua toasting

I looked on in admiration as Ambassador Martin Andjaba strolled into the room fresh off a plane from the embassy in Washington, D.C. A wide smile crossed my face when Windhoek Mayor Muesee Kazapua reached out and shook my hand. And I couldn’t have felt more proud as I watched my Mayor, Ivy Taylor, sit at a table and sign the friendship agreement. Watching this historic event triggered thoughts of the great Pan African advocate, Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, when he wrote about the Diaspora. He described it as the movement of African people over the centuries by force to all parts of the world. He made it quite clear that our homeland would always be Africa even though we have adjusted to a second homeland out of necessity.

Namibia achieved independence from a South African administration in 1990 and has done quite well in building a strong and vibrant Republic. It borders Angola in the north, South Africa in the south, Botswana in the east and the South Atlantic Ocean in the west. It is obviously in this vicinity that many of our ancestors were forced to leave their homeland. My creative mind then took liberties to imagine that, centuries past, the two mayors’ families may have known each other, and just possibly my ancestors and those of the ambassador crossed paths. For that matter, all the African Americans at the event could feel some connection with the many Africans in the room also experiencing this momentous occasion.

Fred Williams and Ambassador Martin Andjaba of the Republic of NamibiaDr. Du Bois would have been pleased if he could have witnessed the dynamics; it was the Diaspora at work, just like the great thinker would have imagined it. There, at the table was an African mayor from the major city in the Republic of Namibia, sitting next to an African American mayor of the seventh largest city in the United States and the second largest in the State of Texas; both signing an agreement that their respective cities will promote trade and economic cooperation in areas that include renewable energy, health services, biotech, culture and tourism.

I was able to grab the two city leaders’ attention long enough to take a picture with them. I was also able to corral the Ambassador and get one with him. I have to admit I am not a big fan of taking pictures with cell phones, but at that particular time, I sure was glad to know that my wife was an expert at using the cell phone to record history.

Fred Williams with San Antonio Mayor Taylor andNamibia Mayor Muesee Kazapua

I am immensely grateful to my Mayor for inviting me to this event and to the African delegation for coming all the way from Namibia. I am also grateful to the Ambassador for flying from Washington, D.C., to help make this happen and to my wife for providing me with proof whenever I look at the pictures that this indeed really did happen, and I was not just dreaming of a better world.

San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor: Epitome of Black Progress in America

On By thewriterfredIn Black Culture, Black History, San Antonio, TX5 Comments

In July 2014, the San Antonio City Council selected Councilwoman Ivy Taylor to fill the last year of Mayor Julian Castro’s term of office, when he accepted a political appointment to head up Housing and Urban Development in the President’s administration.  The significance of this selection is that Ivy Taylor becomes the first African American Mayor in this city’s long history of racial relations, which has always been more progressive than the rest of the south.

D2Taylor2011Mayor Taylor also becomes only the second African American woman to become leader of a major city since Shirley Clarke Franklin was mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. What is even more impressive is that the black population in San Antonio is less than 10%. That is the lowest black percentage of a city over 30,000 that has or had a Black woman as its mayor. The other city was Asheville, North Carolina in 2011, and its percentage was 17.6.

However, let’s not restrict these impressive statistics from an African American perspective only. The larger picture is just as important in terms of the progress that women have made in the political arena. As of January 2014, of the 1,351 mayors of United States cities with populations over 30,000, 249 or 18.4% were women. Given that women are the majority population in this country, these figures are encouraging but not nearly as high as they should be.

Andrea Dew Steele, founder of Emerge America, a non-profit devoted to training more women for elective office, rationalized the reason for such a low figure in an article in the Philadelphia Tribune back on December 22, 2011. She told Marc Morial President and CEO of the National Urban League that, “We don’t feel as qualified as men; we’re not recruited in the same number; we feel turned off by the mechanics; we have persistent family barriers, and we don’t have the same networks as men.”

If Steele had followed Ivy Taylor’s career, she would know her excuses are nonsense. Ms. Taylor has won two impressive victories for the council seat in the Second District of the city. She did not win twice by feeling inferior in her ability to compete on the same level as a man. Her family is quite supportive, and her daughter is often seen with her at events. Her husband is a strong partner, not intimidated by his wife’s success, which is often a problem for a progressive and successful Black woman in this country.

One of the residuals that accrue to the black community with her elevation to the highest office in the city is that it can serve as a source of inspiration for young black girls, who are too often exposed to negative images to admire. Her success is a symbol for what can be accomplished by all young people if they have the will to achieve. Mayor Taylor did it the right way; she earned it through hard work and dedication.