Wantok Travel Blog

She was called Phillis, because that was the name of the ship that brought her, and Wheatley, which was the name of a merchant who bought her.  I was born in Senegal. At thirteen, she was already writing poems in a language that wasn't her own. No one believed she was the author. At twenty years old, Phillis was questioned by a court of eighteen illustrious gentlemen in togs and wigs. She had to recite texts from Virgil and Milton and some messages from the Bible, and she also had to swear that the poems she had written were not plagiarized.  From a chair, she gave up her long exam, until the court accepted her: she was a woman, she was black she was a slave, but she was a poet. Phillis Wheatley, was the first African-American author to publish a book in the United States.  #tvauthority #tvauthorityhistory #tvauthoritydiscovery #tvauthoritypolitics

"Sons and daughters of the great Afrikan motherland, hear my words and let them resonate in all your hearts. The time for action is now, for we can no longer any longer in the shadows of economic colonization. "Our narrative, our culture, is our currency; the world waiting to be harnessed and conquered by Afrikans. Let us consume our own products, patronize our own retailers, and build an economy that is not reliant on the mercy of foreign imports. "We must shine a light on the treasures of our beloved continent, for the world is thirsty for our ingenuity and our creativity. "There will be no change in Afrika until we as Afrikans take it upon ourselves to write our narrative and prioritize ourselves at the market place to consume our own products and patronise our retails. "Our culture is our currency.. As it is now we take all our income to buy foreign brands and wonder why our economies are not growing..." ~Maponga Joshua III FoT

Mr Christopher Tep is the inventor and owner of PNG's first full sixteen nutrient content organic liquid fertilizer known as Grow Hariap Organic Liquid Fertilizer. For food crops to bear maximum yields, they must have a sufficient supply of sixteen known nutrients. Grow Hariap has been tested in Australia and PNG laboratories to have all the sixteen vital nutrients that crops need to produce maximum yields. The fertilizer is currently being distributed exclusively by Brian Bell throughout PNG. Mr Tep is an agricultural scientist with 30 plus years of experience in the agriculture industry in both private and public sectors. His story is very inspiring. We interviewed him at length about how he invented the fertilizer. We will publish the interview soon on this platform as well as our YouTube channel. Please like or subscribe to our YouTube channel for the full interview.

Kunta Kinte, “the African,” is a character in the 1976 novel Roots. He was born in 1750, enslaved and taken to America. He was a member of the highly respected Kinte clan of the Mandinka people of the Gambia  A warrior who was educated, clever, skilled, strong, resilient and proud, he was a young man of immense courage that empower him when he was captured by slavers.  Kunta never accepted the name and religion given to him by his slave master and he never gave up on his dream of returning to his homeland and he challenged other enslaved people to fight for their freedom. #PanAfricanism #KuntaKinte #Slavetrade #VisitGhana #Blackhistorymonth

Rosa Emilia Clay, first black person to live in Finland, 1890s, Sortavala Rosa Emilia Clay was born in 1875 as the illegitimate daughter of a Namibian woman and a British merchant. She was raised by British missionaries. At the age of four, she was adopted by the Finnish missionary Karl Weikkolin. Karl was known as a kind man, but his wife treated the foster daughter like a servant. The Weikkolins returned to Finland in 1888, taking Rosa with them. They traveled around Finland having Rosa sing at religious events in order to collect money. After this Rosa received a typical middle-class education. At the age of 19 was admitted to the Sortavala Seminar to study to become a teacher. She did well in the arts and was chosen as the leader of the school choir. In 1898 Rosa graduated as a teacher and became the first African to receive Finnish citizenship. She started working as a school teacher in a tiny rural village but was soon forced to leave because of problems with prejudic...

After an early career contributing articles to Philadelphia newspapers, she became women's editor of the New York Age from 1885 to 1889, and of the Indianapolis World from 1891 to 1892.  She strongly supported the development of Black newspapers, and encouraged more women to enter journalism. Born on July 3, 1855 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Charles and Emily Bustill and came from a prominent family. Her great-grandfather, Cyrus Bustill, served in George Washington's troops as a baker and after the War of Independence, he started a successful bakery in Philadelphia.  The elder Bustill also co-founded the first black mutual-aid society in America, the Free African Society. Among the many other Bustills of distinction are Gertrude's great-aunt, abolitionist and educator Grace Bustill Douglass and her daughter Sarah Mapps Douglass, who followed in her mother's footsteps.  Gertrude's most famous descendant was her nephew Paul Bustill...

John Brown (also known as “Fed” and “Benford”) of Southampton County, Virginia is best remembered as an escaped enslaved person who wrote an account of his bondage that was published in England in 1854. Brown was born about 1818 on the Betty Moore farm, three miles from Jerusalem (Courtland) on the Nottoway River. Due to the will of his owner, the Moore slaves were split between the daughters once they married. Brown, his mother and one brother, were taken by his new owner, James Davis, to Northampton County, Virginia in 1828. The rising price of cotton in the 1820s prompted an increased need and value of slaves particularly in the Deep South. Accordingly, Fed was sold to Starling Finney, a slave dealer, in 1830 and taken to Georgia. There, he was eventually sold for $350 to a cotton planter. Brown in his autobiography described Thomas Stevens as whipping his slaves every day. Young Brown tried to run away from the Stevens plantation several times. In the last attempt he wa...